Climate change is real and it’s quite obvious from the extreme weather conditions prevailing across different geographies. While parts of Europe are sweltering under record-breaking temperatures resulting in wildfires, massive floods have caused severe destruction and loss of lives in others.
India has already witnessed both extremes this season. While the country is facing its worst precipitation deficit in the past eight years, there has also been devastating floods in the upper reaches with Himachal Pradesh witnessing massive landslides amidst heavy rains.
Amidst growing concern around ESG losing steam, the need for affirmative action to achieve climate targets is gaining criticality as governments now need to recommit themselves to ensure that the global average temperature rise does not cross the 1.5-degree celsius mark compared to the pre-industrial revolution (1850-1900) levels.
Ajay Mathur, Director General of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), holds the view that every country in the world requires change to the circumstances, manage the change and also make sure that none crosses the line of irreversible change. His views were presented in a chat with wire agency Press Trust of India.
Mathur notes that the Paris climate agreement in 2015 had agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius and noted that while countries are putting pressure on developing nations to shift from coal to affordable energy sources, the developed world needs to plan sustainable measures themselves to curtail carbon emissions.
Climate scientists have warned that the carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution is closely tied to global warming. And if not curtailed, this could lead to a temperature rise of around 3 degrees celsius by the end of this century. And the topsy-turvy climate is already an indication as this July was the hottest on record.
However, Mathur also clarified that India is not only poised to achieve its ambitious target of generating 500-GW of renewable energy by 2030, but could also surpass it. And reducing prices of automotive batteries by 2025 could be a key driver of this trend. The ISA official was also a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Council on Climate Change.
The official also noted that global climate finance distribution was a cause for concern as it was skewed and one way things can change is to reform multilateral lending norms to facilitate renewable energy investments. As a G20 president, India invited the ISA as one of the guest bodies to strategize on sustainable development.
He also expressed confidence that widespread adoption of solar energy plus the reduction in battery prices could help realize India’s target of installing 500-GW of renewable energy within the next seven years. He noted that battery prices were reducing due to competition as well as evolution in their designs.
“Earlier, we had lithium phosphate batteries, before that we had lead acid batteries. We are also looking at vanadium redox flow batteries. Therefore, the development of not the same kind of batteries is key in the move away from expensive batteries to batteries that are more likely to fit the need,” the energy sector expert noted.
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