New Delhi: Keeping with India’s decision to urge rich nations to deliver ‘climate justice’ for developing countries, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a leading energy and sustainability think tank, will launch a document—‘Delhi to Paris: Corporate vision on climate change’ at Indian Pavilion of Conference of Parties (COP) 21 Climate Summit in Paris in December.
The document outlines the Indian corporate vision on various aspects of tackling climate change and aligning the vision with government schemes in this direction.
TERI Council for Business Sustainability (CBS) through the initiative has brought together nearly 200 corporates to create their vision for tackling climate change. The TERI CBS will host events in Paris from 4 to 10 December, which includes role, challenges and opportunities in transport sector, business sector, a workshop on non-state actors, etc, besides launching of the vision document.
For the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, the COP 21 will aim to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate to keep global warming below 2°C. Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar in a recent interview to AFP had said that India would push for a 'Polluter Pays Policy’ (PPP) in Paris -- a principle whereby polluting countries bear the cost of the environmental damage they cause.
Manish Kumar Srivastava, Fellow, TERI (Climate Change) said “India always negotiated strongly on PPP. It’s the first and basic principle on which a standard position has been taken by developing nations.”
Representational image. ReutersRepresentational image. Reuters
During the Paris conference, TERI will discuss India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) and Paris deal. INDCs comprehensively detail India’s efforts and aspirational goals for addressing its vulnerabilities to climate change; and make sound arguments for the development space and assistance India needs to deliver. But for India to achieve its INDCs, it will need strong support from the developed countries.
Last month, India, one of the biggest carbon-emitting countries, promised to slash carbon intensity by up to 35 percent by 2030.
“It’s possible—first if India gets support from international community; second, if India achieves its renewable energy target by pushing for energy efficiency in households and industry, and third, developing a policy for higher emission,” said Srivastava.
India has pledged to generate 40 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.
“Recent bidding shows that the private sector in India is getting attracted to solar power. If investment shifts from coal sector to renewable energy sector, it can be reasonably possible,” he observes.
But, for India to reach its current goal of 175,000 megawatts of green energy by 2022, up from 30,000 at the moment, will need billions of dollars.
Going for larger plants to generate renewable energy, a huge amount will be required, which is a difficult proposition.
“For a decentralized solution, awareness needs to be developed among households, small industry sector and simultaneously industry should go for capacity building. It’ll take lot of time. For the cost to come down, a technologically and economically viable model needs to be developed simultaneously,” added Srivastava.
