‘The challenge is to make sure that everybody has a right to energy’

🔴 Narain along with Ajay Mathur, Director General of the International Solar Alliance was in conversation with Amitabh Sinha, Resident Editor, The Indian Express.

Sunita Narain

India’s target of reaching net zero emissions by 2070 and cutting emissions by one billion tons by 2030, is ambitious. “But the biggest challenge is going to be how it will be made inclusive,” said Sunita Narain, Director General, Center for Science and Environment during a panel discussion titled ‘The race to net zero: Is India on Board?’. Narain along with Ajay Mathur, Director General of the International Solar Alliance was in conversation with Amitabh Sinha, Resident Editor, The Indian Express.

Talking about the country’s announcements at CoP26 (26th iteration of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), Narain said, “The most important part of India’s commitment is the quantified reduction, the one billion ton reduction, between now and 2030. India is talking about reducing its per capita [emission], which is already going to be rather negligible by 2030, to even more — less than three tons per capita. That, to me, is ambition.”

Ajay Mathur

She added that if we’re reducing our per capita emissions lower than the rest of the world, how do we make sure that everybody gets clean energy and access to it. Revamping the existing energy system is also going to be a challenge, according to Narain. “Given the state of our energy system, we are just not getting affordable power for a vast number of households. We use the dirtiest and cheapest source to make power, but it is the most expensive when delivered to households,” she said, raising the issue of affordability.

Mathur pointed out that the growth of solar energy depends on the price of solar electricity at night. “While it is cheap when the sun is shining, the immediate challenge is to get round-the-clock solar energy that is cheaper than fossil fuel,” he said.The emission reduction targets are also important since they will necessitate sector-wise benchmarks. “For the first time, we will have to have a climate plan, where we benchmark where we are and where we will need to go in each sector,” Narain said.

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