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When it comes to the energy sector, India has played a major role in enhancing and safeguarding critical energy resources for its domestic and commercial purposes. With further collaborations and by conserving its national resources in the field of energy, India holds the potential to promote and continue its longstanding commitment to environmental stewardship.
Illustration by The Geostrata
India is now the third largest consumer of energy, oil and LPG globally, according to World Energy statistics. The rapid pace of industrialisation and urbanisation has significantly increased energy demand, thereby making India the 4th largest importer of LNG and one of the world’s leading oil refiners.
According to the International Energy Agency, India’s energy consumption doubled between 2000 and 2019. With coal being the nation’s main source of energy generation and the fact that nearly 50% of energy generated in India comes from coal, India imported 8.54 million tonnes of coal from Russia, 12.15 million tonnes from the United States and 46.86 million tonnes from Australia in 2020, accentuating its dependency on coal imports despite being one of the largest coal producers in the world.
The occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns significantly reduced India’s energy demands even after importing and securing energy supplies from abroad. This, along with India’s commitment to lowering its overall emissions intensity in accordance with the 2015 Paris Agreement, has provided the nation with a sure shot to initiate a green energy transition, and its desire to do so was evident when India updated its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions back in 2022.
The updated NDC reflects India’s enhanced goals, including a 45% reduction in emissions intensity of its overall GDP by 2030 (as compared to levels in 2005) and a 50% increase (or about 500 gigawatts) in cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.
India has made remarkable progress in building partnerships and signing agreements in the global energy sector by leveraging its involvement in regional and multilateral forums and groupings. In the year 2018, India and the UAE had signed an agreement providing Indian oil companies a stake in Abu Dhabi’s hydrocarbon sector. This strengthened energy security for India by securing long-term access to oil supplies and even encouraged further investments in India’s infrastructure.
India’s strategic outreach to the Central Asian Republics, rich in energy resources like oil and natural gas could be a game changer in its energy dynamics. The TAPI or the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline which has recently been re-introduced after six years of frozen plans, supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is designed to transport natural gas from Turkmenistan to India, passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan, thus providing India with a new source of energy and meet the country’s demands for natural gas.
Although the reliability of this pipeline has been questioned due to dynamic and volatile geopolitical situations in the region, it holds the power to potentially reduce energy costs for India as well as its reliance on coal.
Moreover, India’s ties with Southeast Asian nations in terms of solar power and cross border installations of solar panels, solar farms and related infrastructure have become pivotal, building strong consensus among involved government authorities to prioritise collective usage of renewable energy and meet shared sustainability targets.
This will position India as a key player in the region, strengthening the confidence of other South Asian countries in India’s leadership. India’s strategic initiatives rooted in its ‘Neighbourhood First’ and ‘Act East’ policies have significantly bolstered ties with South and Southeast Asian nations in the energy sector. This increased trust is expected to amplify with India’s cross-border energy trade, particularly with Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan, where India already transfers about 4,423 MW of power.
Additionally, India’s status as an energy surplus nation enables it to forge stronger partnerships with its South Asian neighbours. For instance, the recently signed 2024 Nepal-India Power Pact for renewable energy exemplifies this collaboration. This partnership aims to increase cross-border electricity trade, improve energy security and promote efficient utilisation of renewable energy sources.
As a result, India’s growth in the green energy sector will be greatly influenced by its relationships with neighbouring countries along with the technological advancements and investment opportunities it provides in the region.
The assessments made by the IEA show a 5% fall in India's energy demand of coal, oil and natural gas in 2020. This fall in demand triggered the overall change in the amount of fossil-fuels based energy India imported and produced.
Alongside India’s efforts towards achieving its climate goals, policies like implementation of Production-Linked Incentives scheme, which has an outlay of ₹24000 crores, and seeks to promote domestic manufacturing of renewable energy components while covering the renewable energy components of the country received a further push towards green transition.
These initiatives not only aim to reduce India’s dependence on fossil fuels but have already helped the country surpass its NDC target of achieving 40% of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuels ahead of the 2030 deadline. India is now working toward further expanding its renewable energy capacity to meet the updated target of 50% of its total installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030, as part of its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Since its launch at the UNFCCC Conference on 30 November 2015, the International Solar Alliance (hereinafter referred to as ISA) has been a historic step by India towards achieving its goal of generating 100 GW of solar and 175 GW of renewable energy by 2030.
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Through the ISA, India provided support of $27 million towards initiatives like hosting the ISA secretariat, creating the ISA corpus fund, offer training support for ISA member countries at the National Institute for Solar Energy (NISE), and has further provided support for solar home lighting, solar pumps for farmers and other solar appliances. The OSOWOG or the ‘One Sun One World and One Grid’ initiative was put forward by Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi during the first ISA Conference in 2018.
It was later on jointly launched by Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and the-then UK Prime Minister Shri Boris Johnson on 2 November 2021 during COP26. In addition to this, the launch of ‘One Sun Declaration’ also took place, thus commencing a global effort to invest in various forms of renewable energy.
This initiative encourages international cooperation through green investments, collaborative research efforts related to low-carbon and solar-intensive projects – thereby creating infrastructure in and building partnerships between countries to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.
Among its various energy sector achievements, India stands as the first G20 nation to meet the Paris Agreement commitments in renewable energy. As part of its commitments, India has significantly expanded its renewable energy capacity, reaching approximately 172 GW as of 2023.
Narendra Modi commended India’s solar energy capacity – which has increased 32-fold in the last decade – and expressed confidence in achieving the 500 GW renewable energy target by 2030, thus exemplifying India’s commitment to sustainable development and climate action.
To conclude, India has been prudent by making a commendable effort in the renewable energy sector. Overall, it has taken a realistic approach in securing and diversifying its energy resources while it is a firm believer in the remarkable results that can be achieved through deeper cooperation with its partners. This also shows that India’s transition towards a renewable sector helps the country in being carbon neutral and one day, being fully renewable-energy dependent.
BY NAVYA SRIVASTAVA
TEAM GEOSTRATA
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