“No doubt, addressing global warming is important. But it’s also equally important for developing countries to ensure that there is adequate and affordable energy available for powering economic growth,” the CEA said at a CII event.
He said that if India’s economic growth is put in jeopardy, then generations of fiscal and private sector resources will too be in trouble.
Further, he said that green financiers need to take into account the fact that India can’t completely swear off fossil fuel.
For Nageswaran, the single biggest worry for sustaining the growth rate that India has been able to achieve in the last two years is energy security. Energy security has come under the scanner in recent years owing to geopolitical developments.
“No doubt, addressing global warming is important. But it’s also equally important for developing countries to ensure that there is adequate and affordable energy available for powering economic growth,” he said.
The G7 countries have asked all major economies, including India and China, to commit to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and let their emissions peak by 2025.India at a crossroads
India, the world’s second-largest coal consumer and fifth-largest economy, is also at a key economic crossroads as its own momentum is checked by a slowdown in global goods demand due to rising interest rates and high energy and living costs.
India is also expected to face growing scrutiny over its practices of importing crude oil and other energy products from Russia despite international efforts to sanction Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
At COP26 in the UK, India had committed to a net-zero carbon emissions target by 2070. Net zero means achieving a balance between the greenhouse gases put into the atmosphere and those taken out.
India submitted its long-term low emission development strategy (LT-LEDS) to the UN climate body at COP27 in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, detailing what it would do to achieve the net zero emissions target by 2070.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that India will spend $53 billion and $87 billion of average annual investment in 2021-25 and 2026-30, respectively, to achieve the Stated Policy Scenario (STEPS) trajectory of emissions reductions. Ratings agency Moody’s said that bulk of the estimated investment will be allocated to clean energy and related projects.
(With agency inputs)