NEW DELHI: The country’s National solar Mission is being scaled up five-fold to 1,00,000 megawatts by 2022, says the Economic Survey for 2014-2015. “In the next five years proposals are likely to generate business opportunities of the order of $160 billion in the renewable energy sector,” the survey says.
“It offers very good opportunity for businesses to set and scale up industry, leapfrog technologies and create volumes. Some of India’s major immediate plans on renewable energy include scaling up cumulative installed capacity to 170 gegawatts (GW) and establishing a National University for Renewable Energy,” it adds.
The Economic Survey 2014-15 presented in the Parliament says that India has made considerable progress in tackling climate change issues. The year 2015 is going to witness new agreements on climate change and sustainable development. India has been following action-oriented policies to bring rapid development to its people while purposefully addressing climate change. India has been one of the foremost advocates of long-terms global cooperation in combating climate change in accordance with the principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
India launched its National Action Plan on Climate Change way back in 2008 and is currently revisiting National Missions in the light of new scientific information and technological advances.
India’s total renewable power installed capacity as 31 December 2014 has reached 33.8 GegaWatts(GW). Wind energy continues to dominate this share accounting for 66 per cent of installed capacity followed by biomass, small hydro power and solar power.
India introduced the clean energy cess on coal in 2010 which very few countries have in the world. This has been doubled to Rs 100 per tonne in 2014. The total collection so far under the National Clean Energy Fund NCEF has crossed Rs 17,000 crore and till September, 2014, 46 clean energy projects worth Rs 16,511.43 crore have been recommended for funding out of this fund.
Efforts are also under way by the government to build India’s institutional capacity for mobilizing climate change finance. India has set a National Adaptation Fund with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore in 2014 to support adaptation actions to combat the challenges of climate change in sectors like agriculture, water and forestry.
The Survey says the global agreement on climate change expected by December, 2015 under the UNFCCC applicable to all countries must be ambitious, comprehensive, equitable and balanced taking into account the huge development needs of developing countries. It should address the genuine requirements of developing countries like India by providing them equitable carbon and development space to achieve sustainable development and eradicate poverty. Simultaneously, the multilateral Green Climate Fund (GCF) under the UNFCCC has made progress and is now ready for business with around US$ 10 billion pledged to it by the contributing Parties. At the country level, institutional mechanism required to access the GCF resources are being set up.
India’s development plans lay a balanced emphasis on economic development and the environment. The country has witnessed the introduction of landmark environmental measures for conservation of rivers, improvement of urban air quality, enhanced forestation, significant increase in installed capacity of renewable energy technologies, shift towards public transport and enhancing rural and urban infrastructure.
Recent key initiatives include the Swachh Bharat Mission, Clean Ganga Plan, scaling up of the National Solar Mission fivefold from 20,000 MW to 1,00,000 MW with an additional investment requirement of US $ 100 billion, development of 100 smart cities with integrated policies for sustainable development and preparations for developing a National Air Quality Index and a National Air Quality Scheme.
