Integrating Climate Change Concerns in Infrastructure Projects

A Case for Reduction in Carbon Emissions in Rural Housing Schemes

Abstract

In emerging economies like India, there is a clear conflict between development priorities and environmental concerns. With the ever advancing urbanization and rural transformation processes, construction sector seems to be playing a major role in the contemporary efforts towards growth and development. However, rising material costs and increasing carbon emissions have posed as serious causes of concern. The efforts to bridge the existing gap in decent housing facilities, reconstruction due to frequent occurrence of natural calamities and urbanization not only pose a challenge for our development process, they also emerge as potential threat for environmental sustainability. With the Indian countryside currently going through one of the largest initiatives by the Government of India for addressing homelessness through a major unit assistance programme called the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana Gramin (PMAYG), the overall expenses are definitely going to be huge, albeit a welfare priority of the government it is also intertwined with enormous environmental costs with conventional construction technologies. The present paper explores an alternative framework that may simultaneously achieve our development priorities for housing, cost reduction and environmental sustainability, with replacement of cement, steel and the likes with greener alternatives, as have been suggested in previous works. Using 108 suggested housing models in 15 different States of the country, the study concludes that substantial reduction in financial burden and carbon emissions is possible in the rural housing sector alone.