By Mahesh Palashikar
Since the World Earth Summit held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, when global leaders first gathered and accounted for the cause of sustainability, much has evolved. Once a passing concern, the harsh impacts of climate change have today taken centre-stage. Especially for developing countries like India that are struggling to battle climate exigencies while approaching the peak of their development curve, the decades since have been a flurry of activity.
Action to combat global warming is today visible, in policy and intent. At COP’26 held last year, India demonstrated its resolve to be Net Zero by 2070, meet half of the country’s power needs from renewable energy sources by 2030 and reduce total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes in the same time period. Now, as we chart India’s journey towards these ambitious ends, we require sincere synergies between the public and private sector. The role of the latter, especially, has been enhancing in recent times. This has been evident in companies emphasizing operational efficiency, enhancing sustainability initiatives and fixing set targets for internal efficiencies.
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With India updating its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and committing to reduce emissions Intensity of GDP by 45% by 2030, from 2005 levels, and achieve about 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030—the private sector has an even larger role to play. COP 27 is likely to witness a play out of this. India’s commitments, no doubt, require enhanced capital flows—and no one party can do it alone. Here, especially, we need active participation of private entities in scaling-up advanced technology, one of the critical pathways to cut emissions and accelerate clean energy transition.
Much of the negotiations are likely to consider four themes—mitigation, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage. These themes are particularly relevant to developing nations and climate-vulnerable countries. It has been estimated that mitigation, decarbonisation and global resiliency efforts requires more than a trillion dollars, and the opportunities from such investments are likely to be 26-fold more! Most importantly, the time to action and sanction this is now.
The paths towards Net Zero may be many—but the emphasis on technology to accelerate climate action is pervasive across all. The government recognises this, and the National Hydrogen Mission is a great example. Hydrogen brings great strengths in carbon-free generation as a fuel, a carrier, and a store of energy. Further, gas turbines that can work on hydrogen instead of natural gas, or even on fuels that have 50% hydrogen, are an emerging technology that can play a driving role in clean energy transition. In terms of practical implementation, 3D-printed ‘premixed combustors’ in which hydrogen and air are mixed at an optimal ratio can help cut emissions—and are one of the many solutions for industries to embrace, especially those that are energy-intensive.
We have been harnessing the country’s natural strengths in solar, given that much of India receives bright sunlight 300 days a year; now, the private sector can take a lead in finding complementary support from other sources, such as wind. In the last decade, turbines have been developed on wind regimes that work with the low speed of wind here. Exploring wind-plus-solar or thermal-plus-solar solutions that are customised, based on terrain and budgets, and the use of digital twins—real-time algorithms of power plants—can help cut the levelised cost of electricity.
Another solution for India Inc in supporting the country’s energy transition journey is to leverage advanced energy storage solutions, especially pumped hydro storage, which is the most economical storage technology for long discharge duration, storage, and effective consumption. The technology will enable the surplus energy that is available on the grid during night and holidays to generate power during peak periods and achieve greater profitability.
While expanding, renewables are yet to become fully capable of supporting India’s entire power demand. In that respect, coal-fired plants will continue to form the mainstay of our economy. Thus, embracing appropriate emission control technologies to significantly contain SOx and NOx emissions will be critical.
Finally, as we scale technologies and strengthen our power systems, we have to ensure that deployment and use remains sustainable with scalability. The technology operations themselves must be clean and efficient while able to contribute to a local and balanced circular economy.
The opportunity for India Inc is tremendous—not just to commit ourselves to net neutrality within our scope of operations but also in deploying and scaling technology that can accelerate the road to Net Zero. As the world warms at faster rates, as nature unleashes its fury as floods and droughts, embracing a zero-emission strategy is not an option but an imperative. Here, the private sector will play a pivotal role.
The author is President, GE South Asia