Collaborative governance for urban sustainability: implementing solar cities

ABSTRACT

Today, when rapid urbanization has become an environmental concern all over the world, the concept of solar cities assumes a crucial role to play in realizing not only the sustainability potential of cities but also to transform urbanization into an opportunity. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India in 2008 launched the Solar Cities Programme to promote alternate sources of energy and reduce dependency on conventional energy sources. Chandigarh was the first city to be declared as model solar city. This study attempts to empirically analyze the measures taken to make Chandigarh a model solar city while focusing on adoption of roof-top Solar Photovoltaic (SPV). The data collected was analysed and interpreted using percentages. Descriptive analysis of the responses of government officials, residents, NGOs and private empanelled agencies was done. Findings revealed that the whole idea of participatory local planning was sidelined, awareness generation remained piecemeal, no formal co-ordination mechanism was established and yet empirical targets were not only achieved but surpassed. However, the implementation failed to convince residents to shift towards solar energy, jeopardizing the long-term sustainability of the solar city plan.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainability, Sustainable Urban Development, Sustainable Cities, Solar City, Public Policy, Collaborative Governance

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to all the residents and government officials, especially Chief Executive Officer, CREST, for becoming part of this study, sparing time and sharing insights which shaped this research endeavour.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Anthropocene is the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

2. International Solar Alliance is a multilateral coalition for collaboration of solar resource rich countries, with an aim of increasing deployment of solar energy technologies to enhance energy security and sustainable development.

3. Grid Connected Solar Rooftop Programme is a Government of India scheme for providing financial assistance to the residents for installing solar rooftop SPVs.

4. Union Territories are administrative divisions, which are directly governed by the Union Government of India.

5. Nodal agency is a specially designated office which is responsible either for planning or execution or monitoring or a combination of all for a specific policy/programme of the government.

6. Registered society is a type of association in India constituted under The Societies Registration Act 1860 and having a non-commercial nature for the promotion of arts, culture, science and education.

7. Net metres are devices which record the units of electricity drawn and sent to the utility grid. It provides the billing mechanism determining the net energy used, i.e., difference between the energy produced by the rooftop SPVs and the energy consumed by the house.

8. Rowe and Frewer (2005) refers to public engagement as a combination of public communication, public consultation and public participation based on the flow of information.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bharati Garg

Dr Bharati Garg is an Assistant Professor and Academic Co-ordinator, Department of Public Administration, Panjab University, Chandigarh. She has been teaching Public Administration since 2004. Her research interests include Public Policy, Education Administration, Renewable Energy, Local Government, Food Security, Emerging Areas in Public Administration and Human Resource Management. She is the author of a book titled Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: An Assessment (). She has numerous publications in reputed journals and has presented papers at national and international seminars and conferences. She was Co-Investigator in Government of India’s project titled “Evaluation of Wheat Procurement and Storage Operations in Punjab” in 2019.

Rohit Barach

Rohit Barach completed post-graduation in Public Administration from University of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is doing a PhD in the field of Public Health Governance under the supervision of Dr Bharati Garg from the Department of Public Administration, Panjab University, Chandigarh. His areas of interest are Governance, Public Policy, Environmental Governance and Public Health Governance. He has also been part of research team in two national projects.