Context:
The Finance Minister’s latest Budget is noteworthy for the emphasis she has laid on the government’s commitment to move towards net-zero carbon emission by 2070.
India’s Energy Growing Needs:
- As an article presented at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos last month notes, India holds the key to hitting global climate change targets given its sizable and growing energy needs.
- With the country’s population set to overtake China’s some time this year, India’s appetite for energy to propel the economy is set to surge exponentially.
- The transition to green alternatives from the current reliance on fossil fuels is therefore an urgent imperative and an opportunity to leverage this move to catalyze new industries, generate jobs on a sizable scale and add to overall economic output.
- In a nod to this, Budget 2023-24 devoted a fair amount of space to the green industrial and economic transition needed.
Necessary Steps in the required direction:
- Electric vehicle (EV) :
- With the electric vehicle (EV) revolution poised to take off as every automobile major rolls out new EV models to tap demand, the availability of indigenously produced lithium-ion batteries has become a necessity, especially to lower the cost of EVs.
- The Budget proposes to exempt customs duty on the import of capital goods and machinery required to manufacture lithium-ion cells used in EV batteries.
- Battery storage system:
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- Another key proposal relates to the establishment of a viability gap funding mechanism to support the creation of battery energy storage systems with a capacity of 4,000 MWh.
- Energy storage systems are crucial in power grid stabilization and essential as India increases its reliance on alternative sources of power generation including solar and wind.
- With wind turbine farms and solar photovoltaic projects characteristically producers of variable electric supply, battery storage systems become enablers of ensuring the electricity.
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- Green energy is a sustainable and required transition in this era, and taking such steps in this direction should be implemented properly.
Additional Information:
- Net Zero Emissions (NZE) referred to as carbon neutrality.
- It does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero. Rather a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by the absorption and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
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News Source: The Hindu
4 Feb 2023
