Green Energy can Shoulder India’s Economic Recovery After COVID-19: Report

A new report shows how COVID-19 is influencing principles and strategic opportunities in the clean energy transition to support the economic recovery.

A new report has detailed how COVID-19 is influencing the clean energy transition in India, as well as identifying principles and strategic opportunities that if implemented well, will drive economic recovery and maintain momentum towards a green energy economy.

The report, Towards a Clean Energy Economy: Post-COVID-19 Opportunities for India’s Energy and Mobility Sectors, by government think tank Niti Aayog and the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), advocates for stimulus and recovery efforts including electric vehicle, energy storage, and renewable energy programs.

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Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog said he is confident that India’s economy will recover following the containment of the Covid-19 pandemic. “India’s strong democratic institutions promote policy stability. Ongoing economic reforms, if executed well, should keep the country’s growth rate ahead of peers,” he said.

The report lays out four principles as a framework to support India’s clean energy future: 1) invest in least-cost-energy solutions, 2) support resilient and secure energy systems, 3) prioritise efficiency and competitiveness, and 4) promote social and environmental equity.

“COVID-19 has disrupted the world and affected everyone’s lives,” said Clay Stranger, senior director, Rocky Mountain Institute. “As India looks to recovery efforts, clean energy and mobility systems can make a more resilient India by bolstering manufacturing, enhancing the reliability of electricity, avoiding costly oil imports, and cleaning the air.”

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“Clean energy will be a major driver of India‘s economic recovery and international competitiveness,” said Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog. “We have recommended specific actions by which India can revive two of our economic powerhouses—the transport and power sectors—and emerge stronger.”

The report further states that India’s transport sector can save 1.7 gigatonnes of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions and avoid about 600 million tonnes of oil equivalent in fuel demand by 2030 through shared, electric, and connected passenger mobility and cost-effective, clean, and optimised freight transport. Significant savings are also achievable in the power sector.

As per the report, the opportunities in the transport sector include making public transport safe, enhancing and expanding non-motorised transport infrastructure, reducing vehicle kilometres travelled through work-from-home where possible, supporting national strategies to adopt electric vehicles in the freight and passenger segments, and making India an automotive export hub.

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While in the power sector the report suggests, opportunities include improving the electricity distribution business and its operations, enabling renewables and distributed energy resources, and promoting energy resilience and local manufacturing of renewable energy and energy storage technologies.

To read the full report click here.