India one of the top performing clean energy economies: Report

WASHINGTON, April 12: With India receiving $10.2 billion investments in clean energy, the country has emerged as one of the top performing clean energy economies in the 21st century, an eminent American non-profit organisation said in a report.

The Pew Charitable Trust, in its report, said India's clean energy sector continued to flourish in 2011, with private investment increasing 54% to $10.2 billion, placing the country at number 6 spot among the G-20 nations.

This was the second highest growth rate among the G-20 nations, The Pew Energy said in its research report released in Washington on Wednesday.

"On a number of measures, India has been one of the top performing clean energy economies in the 21st century, registering the fifth highest five-year rate of investment growth and eighth highest in installed renewable energy capacity," said Phyllis Cuttino, director of Pew's Clean Energy Program.

"The country holds great potential in the Asia/Oceana region and will continue to be a top destination for private investment this year," she said.

Clean energy investment, excluding research and development, has grown by 600% since 2004, on the basis of effective national policies that create market certainty, Cuttino added.

India's "National Solar Mission", with a goal of 20 GW of solar power installed by 2020, helped drive the seven-fold jump in solar energy investments, to $4.2 billion, the report said, adding the country received $4.6 billion and an additional 2.8 GW of capacity was installed over the course of the year.

India now has 22.4 gigawatts of installed clean energy generating capacity, it noted.

"The clean energy sector received its trillionth dollar of private investment just before the end of 2011, demonstrating significant growth over the past eight years," said Michael Liebreich, CEO of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Pew's research partner.

"Solar installations drove most of the activity last year as the falling price of photovoltaic modules, now 75% lower than three years ago, more than compensated for weakening clean energy support mechanisms in a number of parts of the world," Liebreich said.

Globally, investment grew to a record $263 billion in 2011, a 6.5% increase over the previous year, the report said.

The US reclaimed the top spot among all G-20 nations and attracted $48 billion. However, with $45.5 billion in private investments, China continued to be a hub of clean energy activity – leading the world in wind energy investment and deployment as well as wind and solar manufacturing.

Germany received $30.6 billion ranking third among G-20 nations.

The combination of falling prices and growing investments accelerated installation of clean energy generating capacity by a record 83.5 GW in 2011 bringing the total to 565 GW globally.

This represents almost 50% more than installed nuclear power capacity, the report said.

TERI organises ‘Climate Change Forum’ to facilitate public discussions on key climate change issues

NEW DELHI, April 11: Recent scientific studies leave us in doubt that a “business as usual” approach would result in devastating damage due to the impacts of climate change. The challenge confronting us is to agree on and implement an urgent and adequate response to climate change at both the domestic and international levels.

Keeping this in mind,The Energy and Resources Institute(TERI) has established a Climate Change Forum with a view to promote informed discussion on the following issues:-

NAPCC (National Action Plan on Climate Change), state-level plans and other domestic responses addressing climate change;
The state of international negotiations on climate change and the major issues in debate; and
Inter-linkages between climate change and other major global concerns, for example, trade, intellectual property rights, human rights, and human security.

Speaking about the importance of the Forum, Smt. JayanthiNatarajan, Hon. Minister of State (I/C) for Environment & Forests said, “I am thankful to TERI and Climate Change Forum for highlighting issues which deserve debate and importance. TERI highlights issues which are important not only for India, but also for the world. Debates like these should extend to furthest possible areas.”

Talking about Durban she added, “In Durban, India played an extremely constructive role, India’s role is pivotal in the world. Discussions on Bali roadmap and Cancun agreement were held. India has a vital stake as we are vulnerable to climate change. It is critical for us to keep going and have a fair share and access to clean energy.”

Welcoming panelists, Dr RK Pachauri, Director General, TERI, said that there are a lot of challenges ahead, and there are scientific options available to us, which will help us understand the challenges. He emphasised that major efforts are being taken by India in guiding other societies.

Others present at the panel discussion were Amb C Dasgupta, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, DrDipak Dasgupta, Principal Economic Advisor, MoF, Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, Mr RR Rashmi, Joint Secy, MoEF, Dr. Arabinda Mishra, Director, Earth Science and Climate Change, TERI.

The Forum also discussed about how a promising start has been made at the domestic level with the launch of the Prime Minister’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The Action Plan sets out a comprehensive response to climate change in the overall context of development, identifying “measures that promote India’s development objectives while also yielding co-benefits for addressing climate change effectively”. The eight missions under the Action Plan cover both adaptation and mitigation, in addition to scientific research. A number of state governments have already taken up the task of framing their own climate change responses. These developments are, of course, only the first steps in a long journey. Panelists were of the view that every level of governance, right down to the panchayat level, must be directly involved in facing the challenge of climate change.

The panelists mooted that in contrast to the picture at the national level, progress in the international climate change negotiations has been disappointing. Because of the Copenhagen experience, expectations for Cancun are being pegged at relatively modest and realistic levels.

Climate change may have potential implications for a wide range of other global issues, including conventional and non-conventional security concerns, international trade, intellectual property rights, health, migration, international air, and maritime transportation, as well as human rights. Climate change has, therefore, come to figure on the agendas of diverse UN bodies and specialized agencies, including the UN Security Council, World Trade Organization (WTO), World Health Organization (WHO), International Labour Organization (ILO), International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and Human Rights Campaign (HRC). It is essential to ensure that any decisions in these diverse forums should be consistent with the provisions of the existing climate change agreements—the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. The climate change community, too, needs to be continuously informed of related developments in other forums.

The Climate Change Forum was launched in October 2010 and has already successfully engaged with its members twice since its inception.