New Delhi: India has "commenced the rollout of 20 per cent ethanol-blended petrol this year with the aim to cover the entire country by 2025", Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the G-20 energy ministers’ meeting in Goa via video message on Saturday.
In his address, the Prime Minister said that India aims to become the global hub for the production, use and export of green Hydrogen and its derivatives. Inviting all G-20 nations, as the current chair, to join the Green Grids Initiative of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), he reiterated that the Global South (developing nations) must not be left behind in the global transition to clean energy and that low-cost finance must be ensured for developing countries.
Modi said that India is "moving strongly on its climate commitments (and has) has shown leadership in climate action". He stated that India achieved its non-fossil installed electric capacity target nine years in advance and now plans to achieve 50 per cent non-fossil installed capacity by 2030, adding that India is also among the global leaders in solar and wind power.
Modi said: "No talk about the future, sustainability, growth or development can be complete without energy... We must find ways to bridge technology gaps, promote energy security and work on diversifying supply chains. And we must strengthen collaboration on fuels for the future."
The Prime Minister said that trans-national grid interconnections can enhance energy security. "We are promoting this mutually beneficial cooperation with our neighbours in this region. And I can tell you, we are seeing encouraging results. Realising the vision of interconnected green grids can be transformative. It will enable all of us to meet our climate goals, stimulate green investment and create millions of green jobs," he said.
Highlighting his government's initiatives, Modi said, "In India, we have connected more than 190 million families with LPG in the last nine years. We have also achieved the historic milestone of connecting every village to electricity. We are also working to provide people with piped cooking gas. It has the potential to cover more than 90 per cent of the population in a few years… Small steps lead to big results. In 2015, we began a small movement by launching a scheme for the use of LED lights. This became the largest LED distribution programme in the world, saving us more than 45 billion units of energy per year."
The Prime Minister further said: "We have also started the largest agricultural pump solarization initiative in the world. India's domestic electric vehicle market is projected to reach 10 million annual sales by 2030… For decarbonizing India, we are working on a mission mode for green Hydrogen as an alternative.
