Joanna Lim

Master´s Thesis Title: Comparative Analysis of Renewable energy capacities in Indian states

Joanna is interested in the interface between socio-political and economic effects of the environment. Climate protection policies thrive in an environment of financial and economic sustainability; social awareness and capacity building need to keep pace so that local people have the knowledge and tools to better assess the different uses of their natural resource. Various institutional structures from Top-down to Bottom-up and international platforms have seen successes in motivating a long term transition towards clean energy and sustainable corporate practices. Finding the right approach for a local problem can be an insightful and worthwhile practice.

Her Masters thesis on renewable energy capacity in 29 Indian states and 7 union territories has been written on the assumption of equal technological access and infrastructure support. Holding socio-demographic factors such as population density and technical constraints such as resource potential, electric tariffs constant, what is the effect of economic and political output on state's cumulative renewable capacity? The former is instrumented with gross state product (GSP) of previous years while the latter uses targets set by state policy on renewable quotas (Renewable Power Obligations). A simple 2 stage regression validates the Kuznets environmental curve of higher demand of environmental goods with increasing income as GSP. The Induced innovation model works in the Indian case where higher levels of renewable targets increases capacity buildup but not in the United States where a cursory analysis shows greater corporate and individual participation in the green market than state mandated policies.