India may miss 2030 renewable energy targets as Punjab, Haryana, UP lag: Experts

THE COMMENTS WERE MADE DURING A WEBINAR HELD BY CLIMATE TRENDS, A DELHI-BASED CLIMATE COMMUNICATIONS INITIATIVE

NEW DELHI : India is falling behind on delivering the targets of increasing its non-fossil energy capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022 and 500 GW by 2030 as many states, including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, are lagging on this front, climate and energy experts said on Wednesday.

The comments were made during a webinar held by Climate Trends, a Delhi-based climate communications initiative, on how the northern power grid can accelerate the transition and help India meet its 2030 Glasgow commitments while contributing to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The webinar was held close on the heels of the release of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC)’s Working Group III report on Mitigation recently.

“We are falling behind on delivering the targets of 175GW by 2022 and 500 GW by 2030 because while some states are on track others are lagging,” said Aditya Lolla, Senior Electricity Policy Analyst for Asia at energy think tank Ember.

He said in the southern region, Telangana has achieved its renewable energy target and in the north, only Rajasthan is ahead and has achieved its 2022 target. “But there are states like Uttar Pradesh which have not even achieved 30 per cent of their target. If I compare these two states, both have a 14 GW target for 2022. While Rajasthan has achieved 17GW currently, Uttar Pradesh is lagging at 4GW,” Lolla said.

The story is similar in Uttarakhand (1 GW), Punjab (2GW) and Haryana (1GW). The pro-renewables states are making profits with this transition, like the Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Ltd made a profit of Rs 65 crores last year, due to their RE adoption, he said.

According to the IPCC, to achieve 1.5 degrees C, the world must reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 48 per cent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. This means that governments will need to rapidly introduce policies and measures for emissions to peak by 2025.

In the last climate summit in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced enhanced climate targets for India, including increasing its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW and meeting 50 per cent of its energy requirements through renewable energy by 2030.