From what is happening today, coal continues to be king in feeding India’s power plants and the country is leaving no stone unturned in stepping up production of the fossil fuel to meet the surging demand for electricity as it is crucial for accelerating economic growth. In the process, though, the Net Zero goal for carbon emissions by 2070, which is vital to fight pollution and climate change, is getting blurred. The Coal Ministry released data recently that show India’s coal production during October this year has surged by as much as 18.6 per cent to 78.65 million tons (MT), compared to 66.32 MT in the same month last year. For the April-October period during the current financial year, there has been an 11.98 per cent jump in the country’s coal output.
Minister for Power and Renewable Energy R K Singh while addressing a plenary session on “Renewables – Powering the Net Zero Agenda of India”, at the CII Annual Session 2023 in May this year had said that by 2030, energy consumption is expected to double. “We will need to add capacity so that our country can grow. Net Zero is important, but what is more important is that we ensure enough electricity for our growth,” he had said. More recently on November 1, Singh also highlighted the fact that Net Zero will remain only a goal unless the world gets together to solve the problems of lack of diversification of solar manufacturing capacity and associated supply chains.
To fulfill the obligations under the Paris Agreement, in November 2021 at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged that India would reach net zero emissions by 2070 and meet 50 per cent of its electricity requirements from renewable sources by the year 2030. This is possible with the right and timely use of available technologies. The past two decades have seen a revolution in renewable energy technologies — solar costs have fallen 90 per cent over the past decade. Building new solar power in India is now cheaper than building a new coal plant, and is quickly becoming cheaper than running existing coal plants.
Technologies like electric vehicles (EVs), batteries, photovoltaic cells and hydrogen fuel, while reducing the dependence on fossil fuel energy, can help the country achieve decarbonisation. With cheaper renewable energy, green hydrogen is now a reality. Even if India lacks certain technologies, the Paris Agreement can be leveraged for technology transfer, and countries have started to cooperate on technology development. India can act as a leader in climate action and pave the way for the development that follows an alternative model to that of the industrialised western world. No one expects us to reach Net Zero tomorrow. But the right policies need to be implemented now so that they can take full effect over 30 years.
