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Ecology & Environment
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20/12/20 12:00 PM IST

Climate change control targets and action

In news

The fifth anniversary of the Paris accord last week was the occasion of a virtual global meeting — the Climate Ambition Summit 2020

Target 
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India will not only meet its own targets, but will also exceed expectations” in terms of carbon emissions. 
  • India less dependent on coal and natural gas by aiming for 450-500 GW of installed capacity by 2030 through renewable energy.
  • At the time of that announcement, the target was five times the amount of existing installed renewables capacity of 81 GW. 
  • The Indian railways, too, is expected to go fully electric by 2024 with completion of electric lines by 2023.
Challanges
  • Renewables have to compete with is the coal industry. Despite significant gains in total installed capacity for renewable power in terms of actual power generation, coal still powers close to 72 per cent of India’s electricity requirement.
  • Even if India is to achieve the 2022 target mentioned above, coal would still account for 65 per cent of its energy mix.
  • The main issue is that most of the grid is still geared towards the thermal power industry.
  • Another problem is the financial distress of the discoms, which prevents them from modernising plants, as the thermal industry is plagued by inefficient tariff setting, expensive PPAs and unsustainable cross-subsidies.
Solutions
  • Shutting down old and inefficient plants seems to be the best solution, but if the Central Electric Authority were to shut down the plants over 25 years old — as it should — close to 35 GW could be decommissioned.
  • India must plan a green recovery from the current COVID-19 crisis to ensure a just and sustainable growth for its population.
  • Doing this will take an incredible amount of resources and political will.
Source: Indian Express

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