PM Modi unveils 1000-year vision for sustainable energy at Global Meet

Gandhinagar, Gujarat:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is preparing for a sustainable energy path for the next 1,000 years with a focus on solar, wind, nuclear and hydropower.

Addressing the inaugural day of the 4th Global Renewable Energy Investor’s Meet (RE-INVEST) 2024, the Prime Minister said, “Our goal is not to reach the top but to stay at the top. Today, not only Indians but the entire world feels that India is the best bet of the 21st century. Earlier this month, the Global Fintech Fest was organized, after which people from all over the world participated in the first international solar energy festival. Then, people from every corner of the world came for the Global Semiconductor Summit and today we are gathered here to discuss the future of green energy.”

“We don’t have huge reserves of oil and gas, we are not energy producers. That’s why we have focused on solar, wind, nuclear and hydropower to secure our future. We are determined to build a sustainable energy path,” he said.

RE-INVEST 2024 is organised by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

The Prime Minister highlighted the government’s green energy initiatives in the first 100 days of his third term. “In the last 100 days, we have taken significant decisions to support green energy. We have launched the Offshore Green Energy Policy under the Vibrant Gas Funding Scheme, for which we plan to allocate over Rs 7,000 crore. India is also working towards generating 31,000 megawatts of hydropower, for which we will allocate over Rs 12,000 crore,” he said.

The prime minister also highlighted efforts to achieve the target of installing 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity in India by 2030. “We are leaders among the G20 countries. A country that could not be seen as a developed country earlier will now be an example to the world as a developing country,” he said.

INDIA’S RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGET

Prime Minister Modi unveiled a climate action plan for the country at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in 2021. It included meeting 50% of the country’s energy needs from renewable sources by 2030, achieving 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2070.

Since then, India has made significant progress in installing renewable energy sources, ranking fourth in the world in 2022, according to Climate Action Tracker.

As part of its climate efforts, India, along with France, founded the International Solar Alliance (ISA), which was formed on the sidelines of the COP21 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Paris in 2015. It is a treaty-based intergovernmental organisation that has 99 member states and 119 signatories to the ISA Framework Agreement.

ISA, based in India, aims to increase the use of solar energy technologies to improve energy access, ensure energy security and enable energy transition in member countries. It aims to mobilise $1 lakh billion in investment by 2030 for solar energy deployment.

India’s installed solar power capacity has increased 30-fold in the last nine years and stands at 89.4 GW as of August 2024, as per government data. Similarly, installed wind power capacity was 47.19 GW, small hydro capacity was 5.07 GW and large hydro capacity was 46.92 GW, official data showed.

It is worth noting that India is the only G20 country to have achieved – before the deadline – the climate targets set at the 2015 Paris climate conference.

In 2022, India updated its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) or climate targets, under which the target to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP was increased to 45% by 2030 from 2005 levels.