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NEW DELHI : The emission control commitments made by India at the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November are expected to benefit the country in the long term with new technologies in energy efficiency, carbon reduction and green fuels according to rating agency ICRA.
“Assurances given at COP26 stands to benefit the country; the tasks need a focused roadmap and calls for timely Govt. interventions," ICRA said in a statement and added, “Ambitious targets for COP26 opens massive investment opportunities across segments like renewables, the EV ecosystem, ethanol blending, improvement in energy efficiencies and carbon capture technologies."
India is working on a set of climate policies and has made it mandatory for coal-fuelled power projects to use biomass pellets as 5% of their fuel mix and help farmers earn around ₹15,000 crore annually. The plan, tentatively named SAMARTH, is part of the government’s strategy to support India’s energy transition and contain pollution from crop-stubble burning by converting them into pellets and facilitating their sale.
“The government policies need to ensure no compromise in its ever-expanding energy needs that could hamper its growth ambitions, while simultaneously work towards removing the tag of one of the most polluting nations in the world," the statement said.
Coal-fuelled power projects totalling 202.22 gigawatts (GW) remain the mainstay of India’s power generation and account for more than half of India’s power generation capacity. India has the world’s fourth-largest reserves and is the second-largest coal producer.
“This is likely to attract investment in billions across sectors. Rating agency ICRA, in its recent research report, has analysed India’s commitment in two phases – upto 2030, and the net-zero target for 2070," the statement said.
At the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to cut India’s total projected carbon emission by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, reduce the carbon intensity of the nation’s economy by less than 45% by the end of the decade and net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.
“Being a developing country, which is at an inflection point in terms of its energy consumption, the nation’s per capita energy consumption is expected to surge 3x-4x over the long term. Parallel to this, India has also committed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 1 bn MT by 2030," the statement added.
The commitment also includes meeting 50% of India’s energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030 and increasing non-fossil fuel power generation capacity to 500GW by the end of this decade.
“Achieving net-zero by 2070 need carbon sequestration at same level of GHG emission. This means, post-2030 projections, a steady pace of sequestration (1-3% range) would be needed to reach the net-zero levels in 2070. This calls out for a huge investment, which is estimated at annually ₹115-135 bn (per Niti Aayog report for carbon sequestration)," the statement said.
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