Skip to main content

India 'underestimating' its ability to achieve major transition to net zero by 2047

Sectoral experts, academics and climate activists, deliberating on multiple issues related to Energy and Finance at the 4th annual Energy Finance Conference India, 2022 organised at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras, have asserted that India should have the national ambition of achieving net zero by 2047 at 100 years of Independence and in time to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Ajay Shankar, Distinguished Fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), in his keynote address at the Conference, jointly organised by the Centre for Financial Accountability, Indo-German Centre for Sustainability at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and Climate Trends, said, “Even if we don't achieve this, it will accelerate our transition to becoming a globally competitive green manufacturing economy - we could probably achieve it and afford it. There is a paradigm shift in terms of technologies and costs.”
Held at IIT-Madras on December 6-7, 2022 and attended by academics, think-tanks, industry representatives, sectoral experts, students and activists, the discussions were held around India’s energy landscape, public and private players in the energy sector, financing models, challenges in the ESG Framework, Hydrogen Storage, 2nd/3rd Generation Biofuels and Planning Financial Models For Climate Resilience in the Transport sector.
Earlier in August, the Union Cabinet approved India’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. India also announced its Long-Term Low Greenhouse Gas Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) at COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, which concluded on November 20, 2022.
Additionally, over the course of the year, India announced the Sovereign Bond Framework, The Energy Conservation Act, 2022, (Draft) National Electricity Plan, 2022, Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Green Energy Open Access Portal, all of which will have a bearing on India’s transition plans and the needed climate finance.
“The rapidly changing landscape of the energy sector in India has called for a debate discussing the energy requirementsof the country, the financial requirements funding the sector, the public/ private investments, and the challenges hounding the energy sector. We cannot make a mere technocratic transition without taking into account implications on people, resources and ecology. Moreover, we cannot make a transition without the necessary finance. All this needs to be done in the background of the unfolding geopolitical scenario and the political economy,” said Joe Athialy, Executive Director, Centre for Financial Accountability.
CFA and Climate Trends recently released an analysis on the finance flows for coal vs renewables which showed that for the first time in 4 years of tracking, 100% of the value of the project finance loans identified in 2021 went to renewable energy projects. This is a considerable increase compared to 2020, where renewable energy loans accounted for 74%.
There is a growing confidence amongst financiers to invest in renewable projects as opposed to conventional thermal projects given their risks. However, to achieve Net Zero by 2070, India would need an estimated 10 trillion USD. “As the Chair of the G20, India can push the G7 to expand MDB lending for climate finance”, added Utkarsh Patel, Associate Fellow, Climate Change and Energy Transition, CSEP.
Ajay Shankar concluded that, “India tends to underestimate its own ability to achieve major transition. Around 2002-03, IEA reports used to say we have the largest number of people on the planet without electricity access, and will achieve 100% electrification somewhere between 2040-2050. In 2005, India launched a national programme for rural electrification, and we have achieved 100% electrification much before projections. This should give us confidence to achieve energy transition.”

Comments

TRENDING

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Behind the scene? Ex-IAS, now Modi man in Yogi Cabinet, who lined up Mahakumbh VVIP comforts for Gujarat colleagues

The other day, I was talking to a senior IAS official about whether he or his colleagues had traveled to the recently concluded Mahakumbh in Allahabad, which was renamed Prayagraj by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as part of his intense Hindutva drive. He refused to reveal any names but said he had not gone there "despite arrangements for Gujarat cadre IAS officials" at the Mahakumbh VVIP site. "The water is too dirty—why take the risk?" he asked.

Socialist utopia challenging feudal and Brahminical systems: Kanwal Bharti on Sant Raidas’ vision of Begumpura

In a controversial claim, well-known Dalit writer and columnist Kanwal Bharti has asserted that a clever Brahminical move appears to be behind the Guru Granth Sahib changing the name of the 15th-16th century mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement, Sant Raidas, to Sant Ravidas.

What's wrong with those seeking to promote Sanskrit? An ex-Hindi professor has the answer

Ajay Tiwari  I have always wondered why certain elite sections are so fascinated by Sanskrit, to the extent of even practicing speaking a language that, for all practical purposes, isn’t alive. During my Times of India stint in Gandhinagar, the Gujarat state capital, I personally witnessed an IAS bureaucrat, Bhagyesh Jha, trying to converse with a friend in Sanskrit.