Climate change: 3 grand challenges

The Indian community needs to develop a shared consensus on three challenges

- AJAY SHAH & AKSHAY JAITLY

The path to decarbonisation runs through the electricity sector. Today, this sector accounts for a third of India's carbon-dioxide emission. Growth demands more electricity, and other parts of the economy are steadily switching from fossil fuel to electricity. What will a carbon-free electricity sector in India look like?

Decarbonisation is a difficult problem! The fossil-fuel energy industry and its users have trillions of rupees in assets and many millions of workers. All this capital and labour has normalised a way of life that induces climate change. Unimaginable sums of money and unimaginable inputs of energy are required to break away from these ways and build a new world. If viewed from the central planning lens, obtaining the required change appears simply impossible, and policymakers find it hard to imagine an India without coal, oil, and gas. But once we harness the energy of millions of firms and individuals, and fix up their incentives, it is feasible.

A variety of aspirations have been articulated or agreed upon by the government. We are to get to net zero in 2070. We are to reduce the emission intensity of gross domestic product by 45 per cent from 2005 to 2030. Half the installed capacity in electricity is supposed to become non-fossil fuel. To realise these aspirations, or to pull back the net zero date to an earlier date, requires a strategy.