Resource-intensive practices of yesterday can no longer sustain the world. The future of our planet hinges on timely transitions to efficiency of resource-use across ecosystems of people, products, and processes. This will happen through transitions to low-carbon global energy systems.
Against this, it is vital to take a closer look at the ongoing transitions in India. India is a country faced with the triple challenges of raising a substantial amount of its population out of poverty, shifting to a low-carbon economy, and fighting climate change. It is unquestionable that India’s energy demand and consumption will only continue to rise in the decades to come; nonetheless, with multiple synchronized steps in the right direction, India can set the wheel in motion to achieve its development goals while containing its carbon footprint.
This book brings together the valued perspectives from key stakeholders in these transitions. Experts and practitioners from the mobility, clean energy, agriculture and energy efficiency sectors, amongst others, have shared their outlook on challenges that lie in the way of energy transitions in India, and offered solutions and next steps to move the country forward on the decarbonisation pathway. The overarching message is clear: the Indian energy sector of the future will be noticeably different from what it is today.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Ajay Mathur
Preface by Adair Turner
Acknowledgements
Energy Transitions in India: The Global Context by R R Rashmi
Shifting to Green Energy Systems
- Managing India’s Renewables Target by Sumant Sinha
- Roadmap for a Solar Surge by Ajay Shankar
- Enhancing the Green Footprint of the Electricity Transition in India by Rakesh Nath and A K Saxena
- Alternative Fuels for a Zero-Carbon Economy by Adair Turner
Making the Green Shift Reliable
- Electricity System Flexibility in the Context of the Transition to a High Share of Renewables in India by Thomas Spencer
- Accelerating Reforms in Power Markets in India: Key Trends, Challenges, Recommendations and Opportunities by Hemant Sahai and Rachika A Sahay
- Decarbonise, Decentralise, Digitalise – The Future of Energy in India by Sunil Mathur
- Financing Clean Energy: Enhancing Capital Availability and Creating Supportive Frameworks for Renewables in India’s Energy Mix by Manoj Kohli
Making the Green Shift Viable
- Bridging the Last Mile: Accelerating Access to Cooking Energy in India by Amit Kumar
- Implications of Enhanced Energy Use in the Agricultural Sector in India: Food, Water and Energy Nexus by Shripad Dharmadhikary, Sreekumar Nhalur,and Ashwini Dabadge
- The Future of Mobility is Electric by Anirban Ghosh
- Powering the Powerhouse: India’s Energy Efficiency Leap by Saurabh Kumar
- Tackling the Hard-To-Abate Sectors in India’s Energy Transition by Nitin Prasad
About the Editors
About the Contributors
Dr Ajay Mathur is Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, and a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. He co-chairs the Energy Transitions Commission. He was Director General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency in the Government of India from 2006 till February 2016, and responsible for bringing energy efficiency into Indian homes, offices and factories, through initiatives such as the star labeling programme for appliances, the Energy Conservation Building Code, and the Perform, Achieve and Trade programme for energy-intensive industries. Dr Mathur was earlier with TERI; headed the Climate Change Team of World Bank in Washington DC; was President of Suzlon Energy Limited; and also headed the interim Secretariat of the Green Climate Fund.
Lord Adair Turner chairs the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of major power and industrial companies, investors, environmental NGOs and experts working out achievable pathways to limit global warming to well below 2ºC by 2040 while stimulating economic development and social progress. He also chairs the Institute for New Economic Thinking, and was more recently appointed Chairman of Chubb Europe. He is a non executive director of Prudential plc., and a Trustee at the British Museum. In December 2018 he joined the Advisory Board of Envision Energy, a Shanghai-based group focussed on renewable energy, batteries and digital systems. From 2008-2013, Lord Turner chaired the UK’s Financial Services Authority, and played a leading role in the post crisis redesign of global banking and shadow banking regulation.
Ms Noëmie Leprince-Ringuet is an international expert on climate and energy transitions with the French agency for technical cooperation, currently based at The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi. She was previously with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted in India focusing on Franco- Indian policy and diplomacy in the lead up to COP 21, and on strengthening cooperation between France and India in the fields of climate change, energy and environment. From 2010 to 2014 she was with the Technical Support Unit of the Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report. She has also worked at the Delegation of the European Union to India, Nepal and Bhutan (2010), and at the International Chamber of Commerce Headquarters in Paris (2009).
