- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi announced at the World Leaders Summit in COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, earlier this month that India will achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, a declaration that was welcomed by all.
Is the goal too expensive?
According to a study by CEEW-CEF (Council on Energy, Environment and Water — Centre for Energy Finance), the country will need investment worth a whopping $10.1 trillion (£7.5tn) to achieve net-zero emissions in another 49 years’ time and could face a shortage of $3.5 trillion (£2.5 trillion), Press Trust of India reported.
“India would need cumulative investments of $10.1 trillion to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, according to an independent study released today by the CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF),” a statement said.
The document also added that these investments would help in decarbonising India’s power, industrial and transport sectors.
The study, a first of its kind, suggested that the Asian economy would require investment support of $1.4 trillion (£1 trillion) in the form of concessional finance from developed economies to bridge the gap.
The CEEW-CEF study – Investment Sizing India’s 2070 Net-Zero Target – also said that the majority of the investments would be required to transform India’s power sector.
The statement said such investments, totalling $8.4 trillion (£6.2 trillion), would be needed to scale up generation from renewable energy and associated integration, distribution and transmission infrastructure to a significant extent.
It also pointed out that another $1.5 trillion (£1.1 trillion) will have to be invested in the industrial sector for forming green-hydrogen production capacity to strive for the sector’s decarbonisation.
Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive officer, CEEW, said. “At COP26, India announced bold near-term and long-term climate targets. Our analysis finds that a transition to net-zero emissions would require mammoth investment support from developed countries.
“Developed countries must ramp up hard targets for climate finance over the coming years. Also, on the domestic front, financial regulators such as RBI and SEBI need to create an enabling ecosystem for financing India’s transition to a green economy.
“Finally, given the size of the investments required, private capital, from both domestic and international institutions, should form the bulk of investment, while public funds should play a catalytic role by de-risking investments in existing and emerging clean technologies.”
The study also said that India’s $1.4 trillion concessional finance requirement would not be uniformly spread across all five decades from now till 2070. The average annual concessional finance requirement would vary from $8 billion in the first decade to $42 billion in the fifth.
