Indian Climate Policy - Global Commons Institute

10 | NORONHA
non-fossil fuels. The electricity sector seems best situated to make the transition
into the renewable energy technologies of solar, wind, biomass, and nuclear,
given that around 80 percent of its capacity needs will materialize between 2009
and 2031-2032, and 60 percent between 2017-2018 and 2031-2032. The TERI
study estimates that a BAU pathway for India implies a cumulative investment of
US$ 1.4 trillion in power generation technologies from 2001-2002 to 2036-2037.
However, investment requirements are expected to increase by four to seven
times if a low carbon pathway is adopted. 15
The pressure on India for action on future emissions is hardening postures and is,
in fact, beginning to become counterproductive. Indian negotiators rightly
perceive that the current developments constitute the pursuit by the developed
world of strategic agendas through the environmental route. This perception
holds that India and China, unconstrained by carbon emission targets, will be
able to produce goods more cheaply than those of the OECD countries that have
to incur costs to reduce embodied carbon in order to meet their carbon reduction
targets. Emerging legislation in the US that seeks to target exports of countries
that do not accept emission commitments adds weight to this view. For an
emerging economy to accept legally-binding carbon targets at this stage would
impose heavy costs on that economy. It would reduce the time it needs to make
the energy transitions to a less fossil fuel-dependent path at a pace and cost that it
can afford. This is a fact, given the urgency and the magnitude of an emerging
economy’s energy demands, the initial conditions of poverty, and the overall
social and economic context in which production takes place. Public opinion in
India, although still emerging, is also beginning to perceive this new pressure as
linked to developed country concerns surrounding the competitiveness of
emerging nations. But there is also a view that Indian policymakers should use
the concern with climate change as an opportunity to leapfrog into a greener
energy future.
Many of the measures to address energy security concerns also address carbon
concerns—they reduce the carbon intensity of the energy sector. Solar-based
power technologies have practically no form of emissions and would also lead to
energy security by cutting back on coal and oil requirements to meet final
demand. Moreover, solar – like other renewable energy technologies (RETs) –
can be used effectively in decentralized systems, thereby reducing the need for
the infrastructure investments of extending the grid out to them, reducing
transmission losses, and increasing energy availability to the currently
underserved. It is in recognition of these dual benefits that the National Action
15 TERI, 2008, op. cit., pp.15-17, p.22.