Progressive Climate actions being undertaken by many Indian states as they strategically shift towards increased use of .
This came to Light on Friday at a discussion organised by The Climate Group on the sidelines of the annual New York Climate Week, and at a time when the UN calls for no further build of coal across the world and countries, companies, states and regions world over are committing to bringing down emissions to net zero by mid century.
The plans of states are well placed to achieve long-term energy transition and net zero targets.
For instance, Gujarat is on the path to significantly reducing emissions as they choose to rely on renewable energy alone to meet all future power needs.
New analysis from GERMI shows that the share of coal power generation in the state will come down to 16 per cent by 2030, from the current 63 per cent as it aligns with the 450GW revised national renewable energy target.
The state is also setting up the world’s largest grid-scale battery storage in the Kutch region and is one of India’s largest markets for electric two-wheelers.
The analysis shows that not only will Gujarat not need to build any further thermal coal assets, but it will also have to consider retirement of Plants which are either old or polluting.
Developing a retirement package for these coal plants will hold the key. This will make economic sense given that the cost of renewable energy is less than new coal power.
Electricity sector in India contributes to 40 per cent of emissions.
Ladakh is working towards an enormous 10 GW of renewable energy capacity with solar and wind power, and it is setting up a 50MWh battery storage capacity –India’s largest so far.