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INDIA LIKELY TO MISS 2022 RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGET BY A LONG WAY
- Against its renewable energy target of 175 GW, India is lagging at around 93 GW.
- The main reason for the shortfall is solar power, where capacity addition and production is beset by issues pivoting around declining tariffs
Background:
- In April 2015, the Narendra Modi government proposed a plan to boost India’s renewable power capacity to 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022.
- That would be more than a four-fold increase from the 40 GW or so that India had at the time.
Important points:
- But with just a year left, India looks set to miss the goal: just about 53% of the target has been met, and states that were to be key contributors are lagging.
- When it was announced, the plan seemed to be in step with changing dynamics of the energy industry globally.
- Yet, India’s capacity addition since then has averaged just about 12 GW per year, far short of the approximate 20 GW that was targeted.
- Last year, India added just about 7 GW amid the pandemic.
- Solar power was envisaged as the key driver of the renewable energy basket.
- It was assigned 100 GW of the 175 GW capacity target, against a mere 3 GW at the time. India’s solar capacity has climbed to about 48 GW as of January 2021—healthy growth, but slower than desired.
- The plan also envisaged states driving new capacity addition.
- But only a handful of them are on course to meet their targets as the solar power sector continues to be roiled by falling tariffs, legal uncertainties, and, most recently, a business landscape hit by the pandemic.
- Amid the capacity addition, India’s renewable energy portfolio has been evolving. Wind and solar together account for about 80% of the power generated through renewable sources.
- But the share of wind energy has reduced to 44% from 52% in 2017-18, while that of solar has increased from 25% to 39%.
Paris Agreement goals:
- UN urges countries to update emission targets
- Sixteen of the world’s biggest emitters have not increased their emission reduction targets substantially or at all
Other members:
- The United Kingdom and the European Union are the only regions among 18 of the world’s biggest emitters that have significantly increased their greenhouse gas reduction targets, said United Nations in a new report.
- Of the 197 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), only 75 have submitted new or updated nationally determined contributions (NDC) till December 31, 2020.
- These Parties account for 30 per cent of the global greenhouse emissions.
- “Other major emitters either submitted NDCs presenting a very low increase in their ambition level or have not presented NDCs yet,” UN said in its initial NDC synthesis report.
- UNFCCC called for more ambitious climate action plans by the countries in order to achieve the Paris Agreement target of containing global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius (ideally 1.5°C) by the end of the century.
- While a majority of countries increased their individual levels of ambition to reduce emissions, their combined impact will help achieve only a 1 per cent reduction by 2030 compared to 2010 levels.
- Global emissions, however, need to reduce by 45 per cent in order to meet the 1.5°C goal, according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
SOURCE:DTE