Mathur Ritika Passi

In India, a variety of policy measures have
been targeted to help achieve SDG 7, including
the scaling up of renewable energy
capacity and reducing energy consumption
through improvements in energy efficiency.
This chapter will examine where India is
placed vis-à-vis the SDG goal of ensuring
access to energy for all by 2030, and how
India can incorporate the targets of the
SDGs in its national energy planning and
energy policies.
SDG 7 TARGETS AND THE INDIAN
REALITY
Target 7.1
Access to modern energy services has been
defined by the International Energy Agency
as household access to electricity and clean
cooking facilities, 3 where clean cooking
facilities have been defined to include clean
cooking fuels and stoves, advanced biomass
cookstoves and biogas systems. 4
The question of energy access is one of
high priority for India, seeing as energy
access and poverty alleviation programmes
are intrinsically linked. The World Energy
Outlook Report 2002, for example, concludes
that lack of access to electricity and
dependence on fuels such as biomass are
positively correlated to poverty and hinder
poverty reduction programmes. 5 Meikle
and Bannister explore the linkages between
energy and poverty in poor urban households
across Indonesia, Ghana and China.
They conclude that household energy consumption
is significant for the livelihoods of
the urban poor and that energy availability
is critical for socio-economic progress. 6
The positive correlation between energy
consumption and increasing income levels
has also been illustrated for rural populations
by Yang, who studies the impact of
electricity supply in China on economic
development and poverty alleviation. Yang
concludes that investments in electricity
infrastructure are directly correlated to
increases in per capita income of the poor. 7
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
targeted 24x7 power supply for all India
by 2022, the 75th year of the country’s
independence. Although India is the fourth
largest energy consumer in the world, it
continues to remain an energy-poor country.
India’s per capita electricity consumption,
for example, computed as the ratio of
the estimate of total electricity consumption
during the year to the estimated mid-year
population of that year, stood at just 957
kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2013-14. 8 Average
per capita electricity consumption in the
United States in 2011 was at 13,246 kWh, 9
which reflects India’s energy poverty. Furthermore,
it is estimated that around 25%
(300 million) of Indian citizens function
without electricity and over 800 million
lack constant electrical access. 10 Access to
clean cooking facilities is also a major concern
in India. A United Nations Industrial
Development Organisation report found
that approximately 85% of rural Indian
households depend on traditional biomass
fuels for meeting their cooking requirements.
11
The Government of India has launched
initiatives aimed at increasing the adoption
of improved cookstoves, which reduce fuel
consumption and smoke emissions. The
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
(MNRE) is implementing the National Biomass
Cookstoves Initiative (NBCI), which
was launched in 2009. 12 In 2012, as part
of the Twelfth Five Year Plan, MNRE also
initiated a new proposal called the Unnat
Chulha Abhiyan Programme, a follow-up
to NBCI, which focuses on the development
and deployment of improved biomass cooking
stoves for providing cleaner cooking
solutions in rural, semi-urban and urban
areas. 13 Several other programmes aimed
at providing cleaner cooking solutions are
also being run by multilateral and bilateral
donor agencies and civil society organisations.
14
It is vital that increasing
access to energy also
accompany: One,
improvements in the STUDIES SHOW THAT ACCESS TO
type of energy being
used, and two, HAS POSITIVE RAMIFICATIONS FOR
CLEANER SOURCES OF ENERGY
transitions to cleaner
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
sources of energy. This
is because studies have
shown that enabling
access to cleaner sources
of energy has positive
ramifications for economic development.
For example, McDade found that the
quality of fuels used by households and
small industries, and not simply access to
low-load electricity, is critical for reduction
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