India’s Shift To Clean Energy

To boost solar energy in developing nations, Prime Minister Modi had yesterday unveiled the alliance with French President Francois Hollande at the Paris climate summit. By 2030, India will reduce emissions by 35 per cent of 2005 levels, and 40 per cent of its installed capacity will be from non-fossil fuels, he highlighted. “Mission Innovate” was described by the White House in a statement as “an initiative to dramatically accelerate public and private global clean energy innovation”.

Today, he said it was not just a “historical responsibility”, advanced countries should also take the lead as they have “most room for impact”.

Modi said he had thought of a programme to push national integration – “Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat” – under which every state can observe a year dedicated to another state.

Greenpeace on the other hand said India is sending mixed messages saying the country itself is highly vulnerable to climate change, and solar initiative could be a key milestone for its energy transformation.

Hollande lauded Prime Minister Modi’s initiative as a paradigm shift.

Ahead of the summit, the prime minister had sought to remind the developed world, through an article in The Financial Times of London, that it has a moral imperative to lead the fight against global warming.

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change, #COP21, got under way November 30 in Paris with a host of world leaders participating and a huge security force deployed.

“This is an Alliance that brings together developed and developing countries, governments and industries, laboratories and institutions in a common enterprise”, he said. “India’s leading role in forming an International Solar Alliance anchors its own climate commitment to ramp up renewable energy”, said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“Solar technology is evolving, costs are coming down and grid connectivity is improving”, he said. Country looks at us.

Mr Modi has been enthusiastic about solar energy and in January set an investment target of $100 billion in India’s solar sector by 2022. But it wants countries like India and China also to make firm commitments in this regard.

The International Solar Alliance will hold its first steering group meeting on Tuesday and aims to deliver clean and affordable energy to all, including India’s 300 million people who have no access to energy. The Prime Minister highlighted that much of the pollution in the world till now has been caused by the developed countries and developing countries are still lagging behind economically.