India committed to decarbonisation: Min

India is committed to decarbonising its economy as a responsible global citizen, though the country's priorities are different from the developed world, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said.

Observing that India's energy demand is all set to increase in the coming years, he told a US think-tank that the future of the growth of energy demand will come from India.

The incremental requirement of India's energy will come from renewable energy, he said and referred to the recent announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that by 2030, India's energy basket would have 40% of its needs from the renewable sector.

"We are an emerging economy. Our priority, our strategy is different from the other part of the global developed economic group," Pradhan said in his address to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think-tank.

He asserted that India is committed to "decarbonise our economy as the responsible global citizen.

A decarbonised economy is based on low-carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere. In addition to traditional sectors, India is also looking at future sources of energy.

Identifying hydrogen as a priority area for India, he spoke about the hydrogen mission; US interest and investment in affordability of hydrogen for mass utilisation and India's early efforts at CNG (compressed natural gas) blending with Hydrogen in Delhi in the transportation sector.