







































Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal 5 (2): 129-138, July 2022 

BOOK REVIEW 

Contribution to the Sustainability and Equity 
Dialogue 

Sagar Dhara 

Ramprasad Sengupta, Entropy Law, Sustainability, and Third Industrial 
Revolution, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2020, pp. 271, ISBN: 9780-
19-012114-3.  

Two decades after Rachel Carsen’s 
book, Silent Spring, woke up the 
world in the 1960s to the horrors of 
environmental pollution, there was 
widespread disquiet on another 
question—“Is the current global 
development trajectory sustainable?” 
To throw light on this question, 
the United Nations Secretary-
General, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, 
appointed the World Commission 
on Environment and Development, 
under the chairmanship of the 
former Norwegian prime minister, 
Gro Harlem Brundtland. The 
Brundtland Commission’s definition 
of sustainable development, 
“development that meets the needs 
of the present without 
compromising the ability of future 

 
 Male; upper class and caste; university educated; city-slicker; member of the most ferocious 
predatory species that ever stalked the earth—humans. In a collapsing world, other ways of 
writing bios are less meaningful. sagdhara@gmail.com  

Copyright © Dhara 2022. Released under Creative Commons Attribution © 
NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author.  

Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of  Economic 
Growth, University Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007.  

ISSN: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web).  

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.720  

 

mailto:sagdhara@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.720


 Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [130] 

generations to meet their own needs,” has since gained prevalence over 
other definitions (WCED 1987, 41). 

But without the use of a quantitative index to measure progress towards 
sustainable development, qualitative definitions like the one above—
notwithstanding their eloquence—may be used till the cows come home, 
but will remain sterile and unactionable. In the three and a half decades 
since the Brundtland Commission’s definition came into vogue, the 
increasingly rapid pace of unsustainable development of human society has 
brought us to the verge of three tipping points—climate change, peak oil 
(represents the exhaustion of critical nonrenewal minerals), and growing 
inequality between and within countries. Each of these crises may 
independently cause the regression or even the collapse of human society, 
as has happened in some past civilizations. 

SALIENT FEATURES OF PART 1 OF THE BOOK 

The book Entropy Law offers a quantitative index to measure sustainable 
development in the form of the Overall Sustainability Development Index 
(OSDI). The author believes that all three dimensions of sustainability—
economic, social, and environmental—are equally important. He elaborates 
on them as follows: 

• Economic sustainability requires cost-effective growth to reduce poverty 
and inequality and helps abate violence. A positive indicator of economic 
sustainability is the growth rate, and negative ones are unemployment, 
inflation, the fiscal deficit, and indebtedness. 

• Social sustainability requires equitable distribution of resources and social 
products. This will alleviate poverty, inequality, and deprivation, which in 
turn will reduce crime and social tension and give an impetus to social 
inclusion, gainful employment for all, and people’s participation in 
governance. 

• Ecological sustainability requires the reduction of the ecological footprint, 
improvement of environmental protection through resource conservation 
and pollution control, including CO2, and avoiding ecological collapse. 

Economic sustainability is quantified using the Inequity-adjusted Per Capita 
Income Index (Inequity-adjusted pc II); social sustainability using the non-
income component of the Human Development Index (non-income HDI); 
and environmental sustainability using the arithmetic mean of the 
Ecological Footprint Index (EFI) and Environmental Performance Index 
(EPI). The OSDI is identified by computing the unweighted geometric 
mean of the indices for economic, social, and environmental sustainability. 



[131] Sagar Dhara 

A Social Sustainability Index (SSI) consisting of non-income HDI, EFI, and 
EPI has also been computed. 

The book observes that the OSDI for various countries has a high 
correlation with the Inequity-adjusted pc II and SSI, indicating that 
economic growth is the main driver of human development and that 
environmental conservation requires public financing. The conclusions 
drawn are as follows: 

a) Growth of national income and its stability are necessary for 
sustainable development 

b) Social spending is needed to eliminate deprivation and create 
universal social access to the benefits of growth for people 

The HDI and OSDI ranks of countries have a high correlation, indicating 
that the OSDI-computing methodology may be biased in favour of 
economic indicators. 

SALIENT FEATURES OF PART 2 OF THE BOOK 

This section discusses India’s energy status and transition pathway from 
fossil fuels to green energies. The abundance of coal reserves in India has 
led to its dominance of India’s energy basket along with oil. The share of 
fossil fuels in India’s energy mix is 72%. India has little oil and gas and 
hence imports about 34% of its energy. Renewables, combustible biomass, 
and waste contribute 25% to the country’s energy consumption. India’s 
high GDP growth rate in recent decades has propelled energy consumption 
to grow at 4.1% pa between 1990–2013. 

India’s per capita energy use and CO2 emissions are about one-third of the 
global average and one-tenth that of the USA. Access to electricity and 
clean cooking energy is low, particularly in rural areas. Yet, India’s energy 
and carbon intensities (per unit GDP) are lower than the global average. 

The abundance of biomass, solar, and wind (in some states) energy sources 
in India will allow green energies to replace fossil fuels and usher in the 
Third Industrial Revolution. Hydro and nuclear energy are green energy 
candidates but will not make the cut. Hydro’s declining share in India’s 
energy basket is due to long project gestation periods, human displacement, 
and adverse environmental impacts. Nuclear energy capacity will grow 
significantly only if India succeeds in mastering fast breeder reactor 
technologies, for which India has fuel in abundance. Further, hydro and 
nuclear energy projects face resistance from people. 

The results of a demand model, which projects electricity requirements in 
the future in various assumed scenarios, indicate that the generation 



 Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [132] 

capacity of all types of fuels will grow, though renewables will grow at a 
faster rate than fossil fuels. It is possible to significantly delink emissions 
from growth. To set up large solar and wind capacities, adequate financing 
and trained manpower are required. The expansion of renewables will 
reduce energy poverty, create energy security, and reduce the carbon 
footprint. 

The book concludes by stating that strategies for economic growth must be 
combined with investments for social and environmental infrastructure 
development. Environmental sustainability requires that the ecological 
footprint be reduced and that steps are taken to protect the environment. 
The reduction of poverty and inequality will promote economic growth and 
human development. However, capitalist economies are designed for 
market development, which runs counter to controlling entropy increase. 

DIALOGUE 

Entropy Law has done a creditable job in developing a much-needed 
quantitative index—OSDI—and discussing the future of the Indian energy 
sector in light of sustainability and equity issues. Rather than view this 
section as a book review, it must be viewed as a continuation of the 
dialogue on sustainability and equity, to which Entropy Law has made a 
valuable contribution. 

Is OSDI the best indicator? In the last decades, several development 
indicators that prioritize diverse values have been proposed. For example, 
the Gross National Happiness Index (United Nations n.d.) measures the 
happiness and well-being of a country’s population. The Genuine Progress 
Indicator separates societal progress from economic growth (CSE n.d.). 
The environmental HDI (eHDI) foregrounds the principles of equity, 
historic responsibility, and planetary boundaries by internalizing the climate 
and ecological pressures of economic growth. In complete contrast to their 
HDI and OSDI ranks, Panama, Costa Rica, and Sri Lanka have high eHDI 
ranks, whereas the USA, UK, and Singapore rank low (Bhar and Dhara 
2021). 

OSDI does not consider historic responsibility for territorial or 
consumptive emissions or the extraction of surplus by developed nations 
through unequal exchange with underdeveloped regions. These factors are 
important for climate and economic justice. By internalizing the EFI and 
EPI, the OSDI at best indirectly covers the extent of infringement of 
planetary boundaries, an important factor for understanding sustainability. 
OSDI also does not cover the happiness of the population. Had Entropy 
Law argued its eminence vis-a-vis a dozen-odd ‘holistic’ indicators, it may 
have gained more attention. 



[133] Sagar Dhara 

Is Entropy Law’s discussion on sustainability adequate? While Entropy 
Law glancingly warns of the upper limit of our planetary ecosystem’s 
capacity to meet human demands, it repeatedly stresses the need for 
economic growth in India for poverty and inequality reduction. A 
discerning reader would then ask, what are the planetary limits to growth? 
How much can India grow? Is the growth of the Indian economy 
contingent on the degrowth of Global North countries; how is this 
politically feasible? 

Sustainability has two aspects to it, i.e., the earth has finite resources and a 
finite capacity to process wastes. Both aspects are discussed briefly below. 
There have been a series of warnings since the 1950s that the earth’s 
resources are finite, but these have been ignored. Based on oil reserves and 
production data, King Hubbert predicted in 1956 that oil production in the 
US would peak by the 1970s and subsequently decline. His theory came to 
be known as ‘peak oil’ and was subsequently applied to global oil, coal, gas, 
and other non-renewable minerals. Peak oil occurred about two years ago, 
and oil reserves will be exhausted in another 40–50 years. Likewise, gas 
will be exhausted in about 60 years, and coal, before the end of this 
century (Ghosh and Perlas 2009). 

The first report of the Club of Rome took the world by storm in 1972 when 
it raised the question of the earth having a finite capacity to provide 
resources and absorb wastes (Club of Rome 1972). Sequels to this report 
have deepened our understanding of this issue. 

About 80 non-renewable minerals, including iron and copper, are 
expected to deplete to critical levels by 2100 because of their high rate of 
extraction. In his book Blip, Christopher Clugston refers to this as 
“Humanity’s 300-year self-terminating experiment with industrialism” 
(Clugston 2019).  

Likewise, that global warming is caused by human emissions has been 
known since 1896, when Arrhenius published his first calculation. Yet, it 
took more than a century for the world to wake up to this reality. 

“Keep 1.5oC alive,” i.e., that global warming must be restricted to 1.5oC, 
was the mantra that was chanted repeatedly in the COP 26 held in 
November 2021 in Glasgow. In its report published in 2021, Climate Change 
2021: The Physical Science Basis, the IPCC warns that to meet the ≤1.50C 
ambition, current emissions must be halved by 2030–35, and the world 
needs to become net carbon zero by 2050–55 (IPCC 2021). To meet those 
targets, emissions must reduce by 7% pa for the next 30 years. However, 
emissions have grown by 1.2% pa since the 2015 Paris Agreement was 
signed (Ritchie, Roser, and Rosado 2020a). 



 Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [134] 

The difference between expected emissions in 2030 (based on current 
performance and country pledges to tackle climate change), and desirable 
emissions in 2030 to be ≤ 1.5oC compliant, known as the emissions gap, 
has doubled between the assessments made by the UNEP in its 2016 and 
2020 Emissions Gap reports (UNEP 2016; UNEP 2020). Efforts made so far 
to curb emissions have failed.  

There are then good reasons to believe that keeping 1.5oC alive is an 
unviable ambition (Dhara 2022). For instance: 

• Global warming due to greenhouse gases has already hit 1.5oC but has 
been temporarily muted by particulate matter air pollution.  

• The top six greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, who together contribute 
70% of global emissions, have shown inadequate ambition to reduce 
their emissions. 

• Shifting climate targets, and climate science and policy being at odds, 
have not created an atmosphere conducive to emissions reduction. 

• A quarter-century of demand-side management to reduce fossil fuel use 
has failed. 

Our current emissions control trajectory, provided all country pledges are 
fulfilled, will result in a warming of 2–3oC by 2100. This warming is 
unacceptable as it will catastrophically impact the global environment and 
human society. 

Renewable energy consumption has trebled in India since the 1997 Kyoto 
Protocol was signed—as has that of fossil fuels (Table 1)—in a Jevons 
Paradox-like situation. Instead of replacing fossil fuels, renewable energy is 
supplementing them. This is a global phenomenon (Table 1). Entropy Law 
does not mention this phenomenon while discussing the question of 
sustainability. 

Table 1: Global and Indian Energy Use by Type Since the Kyoto Protocol 
Agreement 

 World India 

 Fossil fuels 
(Gtoe) 

Renewable energy 
(Gtoe) 

Fossil fuels 
(Gtoe) 

Renewable energy 
(Gtoe) 

1997 7,740 670 259 19 

2019 11,760 1,600 733 63 

Source: Ritchie, Roser and Rosado (2020b).  



[135] Sagar Dhara 

Without considering the above aspects, how good are Entropy Law’s 
projections regarding India’s future electricity demand and how to meet it? 
Must some other countries reduce their fossil fuel consumption to allow 
India to meet its poverty alleviation targets? 

Is sustainability in one country possible along with climate justice? 
Entropy Law has touched on the divide between the Global North and 
South nations on fossil fuel use. To protect their development standards, 
North nations wish to restrict emissions to avoid a temperature rise of more 
than 1.5–2oC. South nations that have been experiencing high growth rates 
(e.g., China and India) in the last three to four decades, have prioritized 
national development by consuming more fossil fuels over curbing 
emissions—despite knowing that they are among the most climate-
vulnerable regions with populations that have low resilience. Since the 2009 
Copenhagen COP, differing objectives for national development and 
consequently dissonance in the understanding of emissions control has 
been at the root of conflict between North nations and high growth South 
nations with large emissions. 

There are only two solutions to this impasse. One, that the world comes 
together as one people to tackle climate change, agreeing to share equitably 
the wealth and risks that fossil fuels have produced, which is what climate 
justice truly is. Second, the North nations impose their will on the South 
and curb global fossil fuels consumption without providing the South with 
the means to eradicate poverty and inequality, which is not climate justice. 

At the time of writing this review, two weeks into the Ukraine war, the 
world is experiencing a serious oil shock, unseen since 1980. A 5% 
reduction in oil supplies has doubled oil prices in just the last two months 
to nearly $140/bbl, which will cause a global inflationary trend. The 
unfolding scene gives us a glimpse into a bleak resource-scarce future in an 
inter-connected world. 

By stating that poverty and inequality alleviation is necessary, but by 
discussing sustainability only in the Indian context, is Entropy Law stating 
that sustainability and climate justice in one country is possible? If so, the 
book should have argued its case. 

Energy statistics may be deceptive: Entropy Law states that the potential 
green power generation capacity is estimated to be 3,400 GW, of which 
solar, wind, and other new renewables constitute 95%. While this may 
appear to be a large capacity, only a fraction of it will deliver power. 

Intermittence of solar and wind power: Solar and wind energy have low 
power load factors (plf) due to intermittence. Though renewables other 



 Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [136] 

than hydro constituted 27% of the power generating capacity in 2020, they 
generated only 9% of the power (Table 2). 

Table 2:  India’s Power Generating Capacity and Power Generated in 2019–20 

 Total power 
generation 
capacity/power 
generated 

Fossil 
fuels 
(%) 

Hydro 
(%) 

Wind, solar, 
other 
renewables 
(%) 

Nuclear 
(%) 

Power 
generation 
capacity 31 

Mar 2020 

446 GW 60 12 27 4 

Power 
generated 
2019–20 

1,383 TWh 79 10 9 2 

Source: CEA (2021) 

Technology deployability: Mean theoretical global wind energy is 
estimated to be 1,200 TW, but the deployable amount is only 1 TW due to 
difficulties in reaching or servicing areas that have high wind potential, the 
fraction of wind potential available in the lowest layer of the troposphere, 
the fraction of wind that interacts with the generator’s blades, and energy 
conversion efficiency. It is not clear whether the power generation capacity 
figure of 3,400 GW quoted in Entropy Law refers to the theoretical potential 
or deployable energy. 

Depletion of critical non-renewable substances used in renewables: 
Many non-renewable substances whose reserves will deplete dangerously 
within this century are used in wind and solar energy technologies. For 
example, a large amount of copper is used in electrical grids, motors, wind, 
and solar technologies. About 2.7 and 8–15 T/MW of copper is used in 
onshore and offshore wind generators, respectively. By 2030, about 40% of 
copper production is projected to be used by the renewable energy sector. 
Given current known reserves, copper will be exhausted in about 40 years 
(Capilla and Delgado 2014). Only about 40% of used copper is recycled. 
This implies that copper prices will shoot up to that of silver in another 
decade. 

The permanent magnets in wind turbines are made of neodymium-iron-
boron and dysprosium. The European Union has put neodymium and 

 
 There is a rounding off error of 1% in the total of the percentage breakup of power generation 

capacity. 



[137] Sagar Dhara 

dysprosium on a high-risk supply list and the US Department of Energy 
identifies dysprosium as a most critical substance that may be in short 
supply in the short and medium terms (Capilla and Delgado 2014). 

Has Entropy Law considered the low plf’s of renewable energy, the 
deployability of renewable energy technologies, and material shortages while 
quoting green power capacities? 

Entropy and sustainability: Entropy Law refers to entropy and the Second 
Law of Thermodynamics (the book refers to it as the Entropy Law). Except 
for making a few terse statements about entropy, the book does not 
connect entropy to its main arguments. The book would have read better 
had no reference been made to entropy. 

CONCLUSION 

If we desire a sustainable, equitable, and peaceful society, the above 
dialogue leaves us with these questions: 

• How much of nature (energy and matter) can human society use to call 
itself a sustainable society? If that quantity is significantly less than 
today’s extraction, should degrowth be an option that should be 
contemplated seriously, particularly considering peak oil and climate 
change? 

• Why did we go into overshoot? What will keep us from repeating that 
mistake? 

• What are the principles and mechanisms for production, distribution, 
and ownership of goods, services, and surplus created from nature? 

• Where will energy and material be sourced from in the future? 

• Why is direct sunlight, the energy that is most suitable for a sustainable 
society, never valued? How should the valuation of goods and services 
be carried out in a sustainable and equitable society? 

Entropy Law has done its job by developing an index to quantify 
sustainability and showing how India’s energy sector can move towards 
renewable energy. It is for us to now carry the discussion forward. 

 

REFERENCES 

Ghosh, TK, and MA Prelas (eds). 2009. “Hubbert Peak Theory”. Energy Resources 
and Systems. Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2383-4_10 

United Nations. n.d. “Gross National Happiness Index.” Sustainable Development 
Goals. 

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2383-4_10


 Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [138] 

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=99&nr=266
&menu=1449 

CSE. n.d. “Genuine Progress.” Center for Sustainable Economy. 
https://sustainable-economy.org/genuine-progress/. 

Bhar, Soumyajit, and Chirag Dhara. 2021. “Developmental Trajectories of Nations 
Based on Equity, Historic Responsibility, and Planetary Boundaries.” SocArXiv. 
November 6. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/8qcxm. 

Clugston, Christopher O. 2019. Blip. Booklocker.com. 

Club of Rome. “The Limits of Growth.” 
https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/. 

IPCC. 2021. “Summary for Policymakers.” In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical 
Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by V Masson-Delmotte, P Zhai, A 
Pirani, SL Connors, C Péan, S Berger, N. Caud, et al. Cambridge, UK, and New 
York, US: Cambridge University Press. www.doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896.001. 

Ritchie, Hannah, Max Roser, and Pablo Rosado. 2020a. “CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas 
Emissions”. OurWorldInData.org. https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-
greenhouse-gas-emissions.  

UNEP. 2016. Emissions Gap Report 2016. UN Environment Programme. 
https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2016 

UNEP. 2020. Emissions Gap Report 2020. UN Environment Programme. 
https://www.unep.org/emissions-gap-report-2020 

Ritchie, Hannah, Max Roser, and Pablo Rosado. 2020b. “Energy”. 
OurWorldInData.org. https://ourworldindata.org/energy’. 

Dhara, Sagar. 2022. “Travails of Becoming a Sustainable, Egalitarian Society: Is 
Remaining Under 1.5°C Warming Feasible?” News 9 Live, 28 February. 
https://www.news9live.com/world/travails-of-becoming-sustainable-egalitarian-
society-is-remaining-under-15c-warming-feasible-156281. 

CEA. 2021. All India Electricity Statistics. New Delhi: Central Electricity Authority, 
Ministry of Power, Government of India. https://cea.nic.in/wp-
content/uploads/general/2020/General_Review_2021.pdf.    

Capilla, Antonio Valero, and Alicia Valero Delgado. 2014. Thanatia: The Destiny of the 
Earth's Mineral Resources. World Scientific. 
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/7323. 

WCED. 1987. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our 
Common Future. World Commission on Environment and Development, United 
Nations. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-
common-future.pdf  

 

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=99&nr=266&menu=1449
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=99&nr=266&menu=1449
https://sustainable-economy.org/genuine-progress/
https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/
https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions
https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions
https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2016
https://www.unep.org/emissions-gap-report-2020
https://ourworldindata.org/energy
https://www.news9live.com/world/travails-of-becoming-sustainable-egalitarian-society-is-remaining-under-15c-warming-feasible-156281
https://www.news9live.com/world/travails-of-becoming-sustainable-egalitarian-society-is-remaining-under-15c-warming-feasible-156281
https://cea.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/general/2020/General_Review_2021.pdf
https://cea.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/general/2020/General_Review_2021.pdf
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/7323
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf

