India’s ambitious plan to reduce emissions from its present levels to zero by 2070 cannot be achieved without a significant shift from fossil fuels to green energy at a very fast rate. At present, combustion is responsible for 68.7 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions can be greatly reduced by using green energy in place of fossil fuels. This requires India to produce energy domestically and stop importing oil and gas apart from coal to meet the 2070 dateline. India imported 89 per cent of its crude oil, 44 per cent natural gas and 21 per cent coal in 2022-2023 to meet its energy requirements. The country will have to end its dependence on imported energy to fulfil its net zero target, and combat the threat of global warming.
India is fortunate to have multiple resources to produce alternative energy, although many resources still remain untapped. If the country is sincere in achieving the set goal, it should start focusing on alternate resources at the right earnest without any further delay. It can be argued that during the last decade, the country has increased the production of renewable energy considerably, however, there is still a long way to go to attain energy independence. We are still far off from ensuring a continuous supply of green energy in the absence of a proper storage facility, making it virtually meaningless to produce such energy. If necessary infrastructure for the storage of clean energy is established, it will aid green efforts as well as save large amounts of funds required for the production of non-renewable energy. It’s time now to take a call which energy source to prioritise.
Emphasising and investing in the production of green fuel by using Hydrogen is a welcome move in this context. Use of such fuel will help immensely in decarbonising industries and transport sectors. Already, some progress has been made to this effect with the successful trial run of buses by Hydrogen power in the country. However, the problem lies in producing enough energy from Hydrogen to move the wheels of the nation effectively and also ending the dependency on fuels responsible for climate change. The high cost of producing energy from hydrogen is a major challenge in its adoption. Efforts should be made to reduce its costs to attract maximum number of users. To help the global fight against climate change, India must study and establish actionable policies refocusing its energy plans away from fossil fuels and onto green energy.
