The world is shivering right now. Unseasonal bitter winters and unusual floods, thanks to climate change, is causing the world to shiver. But there are other reasons for this shivering, and it must do with the behaviour of political leadership.
In an interview, WION TV for a segment on climate change, I said that there is a worry that Donald Trump will go possibly back on the climate deal made in Paris, which will be foolish. Environmentalists across the world shiver at this prospect. There are other political leaders also who show double standards. Last month in Canada, in a decision that will almost surely incur the ire of environmentalists, indigenous groups and some political allies, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved the expansion of a pipeline linking the oil sands in Alberta to a tanker port in British Columbia. In July, Philippines President, Rodrigo Duterte said he will not honour the Paris commitments, and criticised the international climate agreement, accusing the UN of being "hypocrites" for fixing a pact that requires all countries - not just the rich - to make greenhouse gas cuts.
The negative stands by countries is enough cause for the concerned world to shiver with fear. In the midst of all this comes some news to keep us all warm and happy this winter. And the news comes from India.
India has built the world's biggest solar power plant.The 648-megawatt capacity Kamuthi Solar Power Project in Tamil Nadu will power 150,000 homes. This is now bigger than the Topaz Solar Farm in California which has a capacity of 550-megawatts. With the Kamuthi plant, operated by Adani Green Energy Limited, India has shown leadership and commitment to its pledge of moving towards renewable energy.
Built in eight months at the cost of US$679 million, the Kamuthi facility has 2.5 million solar panels. The panels are cleaned daily by solar-powered robots. Global News compared the 2,500-acre site to the size of 60 Taj Mahals. This new plant has pushed India's installed solar capacity past 10 gigawatts, which should make the country,the world's third-biggest solar market from next year onwards, after China and the U.S.
The Indian government has stated in its National Solar Mission target, that it wants to achieve 175GW of renewable power, which includes 100GW of solar power by 2022. India has pledged to produce 40% of its electricity through renewables by 2022, including powering 60 million homes with solar. To meet these goals, India is working to increase the pace of its renewable energy capacity, to 20GW per year, from the average of 15 GW per year it achieved from 2007.
Ironically the 2016 BP Energy Outlook report predicts that imports of fossil fuels will increase in India by 2035. It says that gas imports to India will rise by 573%, oil imports by 169% and coal by 85%.Others like Bloomberg New Energy Finance view this differently. They feel that by 2020 large photovoltaic ground-mounted systems will be more economical in India than plants powered by imported coal, based on what is called a levelised cost of energy, a way of comparing different methods of electricity generation, using the average total cost of building and operating a power plant, divided by its total lifetime energy output.
Among the top 10 absolute emitters, only two have per capita emissions that are below the world average. Canada, the United States, and Russia emit more than double the global average per person. On the other end of the spectrum, India's per capita emissions are only one-third of the global average.
India needs to provide more that 300 million people with electricity and lift them out of poverty. To prevent the world overheating it is consciously and in a responsible manner, making choices that is supporting international agreements. And doing this in a mega scale. This is a confident India, showing leadership. The world needs to celebrate and appreciated this.
