INDIA TO WITNESS FASTEST RISE IN ENERGY DEMAND BY 2040: IEA

MUMBAI: The International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast India’s energy demand to grow at the fastest pace globally over the next two decades in line with the country’s economic expansion.

“India has made remarkable progress in recent years, bringing electricity connections to hundreds of millions of people and impressively scaling up the use of renewable energy, particularly solar,” said Fatih Birol, executive director, International Energy Agency.

In a report titled The India Energy Outlook 2021, released on Tuesday, the IEA said rapid expansion of solar power combined with favourable policies is transforming India’s electricity sector, allowing the country to offer clean, affordable and reliable power to a growing number of households and businesses.

“India’s energy future depends on buildings and factories that are yet to be built... Based on India’s current policy settings, 60% of its CO2 emissions in late 2030s will be coming from infrastructure that does not exist today. This represents a huge opening for policies to steer India onto a more secure and sustainable course,” the report noted.

Additional funding of $1.4 trillion, or 70% more than the current estimates, will be needed in clean-energy technologies to place India on a sustainable path over the next two decades, the IEA said, adding that the country’s combined import bill for fossil fuels is projected to triple during the period with crude oil as the largest component.