A (mostly) non-G20 rundown – Issue #70
Last week's developments: Adani's denial, Oil India's clean energy leap, and rooftop solar's remarkable resurgence
News of the week
Compared to its predecessor, last week was relatively quiet.
For the most part, a clutch of familiar processes continued to play out.
The Adani Group “rejected” the OCCRP, FT and Guardian reports establishing links between the group and the offshore investment funds buying Adani’s shares. News came too that some of these investment funds had quietly shuttered.
A clutch of announcements last week showed India’s new energy ecosystem slowly taking shape. After IOC, ONGC and BPCL, Oil India Ltd is sizing-up its own clean energy plans. According to reporting by Reuters, OIL plans to invest about Rs. 9000 crore ($1.09 billion) for 1,800 1,800 megawatts solar and onshore wind energy projects and Rs. 3000 crore ($ 360 million) for green hydrogen. It will also spend Rs.1000 crore ($120 million) on carbon capture, utilisation and storage. In all, the PSU reportedly plans to spend Rs. 16,500 crore ($ 1.98 billion) on clean energy projects. As we said in the previous instalment of this newsletter: “There is a larger story here – on how these diversifications are being mapped out? Are these processes being led by the oilcos themselves? Or is the government playing a role? If so, what is the larger design?”
Rooftop solar is growing again, with companies on track to install 4 GW of solar panels this year. Putting that number in perspective, Business Standard wrote; “India had a total of 8.1 gigawatts of rooftop solar at the end of 2022, far short of a goal of 40 gigawatts by then that the government had set in 2018.” The surge represents, said the business daily, a “sharp turnaround for a sector that had underperformed because of policy uncertainty and financing issues.” What explains this about-turn? “Businesses are driving the uptake as they sign corporate power purchase agreements to meet commitments for net zero emissions... They’re also taking advantage of falling costs, as solar module prices have hit a record low this year amid a glut of manufacturing capacity.”
Elsewhere, the country’s green hydrogen landscape, despite persistent questions about viability, continues to take shape. A proposal from the union ministry of ports to produce, store, bunker and refuel green hydrogen at three major ports – Paradeep, Kandla and Tuticorin – has attracted over 20 Expressions of Interest. Amongst the contenders were ACME Cleantech Solutions and Renew Power. News also emerged that NTPC Green Energy has already signed an MoU with Tuticorin port. “Green hydrogen and its derivatives such as green ammonia and green methanol, will be produced on the land provided by the port,” reported Economic Times.
The country’s pumped storage infrastructure is taking shape as well. According to ConstructionWorld, energy giants including NHPC, Tata Power, Adani Green Energy, and JSW Energy have submitted proposals for pumped storage projects adding up to 39GW.
One reads such announcements and wonders if the country is on track towards meeting its decarbonisation targets – and how all this will be financed. Take Pumped Storage. New projections by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) peg India’s requirement for pumped storage at 18.98 GW in 2029-2030 and 26.69 GW in 2031-2032. Between Battery and Pumped Storage, it says, India will need Rs 4.47 lakh crore by 2032 alone. While on this topic, also read this FT report on financing net zero.
In other news, India has identified five lithium and cobalt mines in Australia.
A raft of worrying developments, however, accompany these progressive steps.
India’s domestic actions continue to militate against its pro-environment rhetoric overseas.The country’s per capita coal emissions have surged 29% in the last seven years. Even as the Prime Minister spoke about the need for a new climate consensus -- "There is a need to understand that the poor and the planet, both need our help," Modi told MoneyControl -- his government put 50 more coalblocks on the auction list. Another instance of this mismatch between actions and words comes from Odisha. The state government has begun cracking down, once again, on adivasis opposing mining.
Yet another instance comes from Nicobar where the government is not letting the Shompen community return to their island.
In the face of all this, India has lost one more green watchdog. In a risible development, the Supreme Court handed over the reins to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to the environment ministry. One hardly knows where to begin. Constituted to keep an eye on the State’s environmental decision-making, the CEC did good work from time to time but was notably unaccountable. What has happened now will make things worse for the environment. The union environment ministry – which faces severe criticisms for watering down environmental and forest protections – will now control the body in an apparent conflict of interest.
The country also continues to haemorrage common sense. IIT Mandi director Laxmidhar Behera asked students to take a pledge not to eat meat, claiming that landslides and cloudbursts are happening in Himachal Pradesh because of cruelty to animals.
All this rot is deepening at a time climate mayhem is gathering pace. 2023 is the first year the planet has seen a category 5 tropical cyclone in each of the world’s seven ocean basins. Too much trapped energy trying to get out. Climate breakdown has started, said the UN. Four very terrifying words.
Given this backdrop, it is hard to not feel underwhelmed by G20. After much pomp and suffering (for workers, residents, and stray dogs), it's time to ask if enough was gained? As veteran editor TK Arun devastatingly observed: “The New Delhi summit of the G20 has been like the peacock, splendour come alive visually, but deficient in its defining quality: the ability to fly, in the case of the bird, and adopting coordinated solutions to global problems, in the case of the gathering of heads of the world’s most significant governments.”
But despite its deficiencies, the Leaders' Summit wasn't a total wash-out. Importantly, it did reveal two things significant to climate and energy security. One -- The Indian government can credibly work as a deal broker in a fractured global paradigm and has gained the confidence of the West to engage on as a representative of the Global South, and two -- the narrative in the run up to COP is heading toward a definitive shift away from fossil fuels and toward dubious abatement technologies, carbon capture and removal. Read this comprehensive breakdown on CarbonCopy.
Your inspirational story of the week
How did a community in the top 10% deprived come to build England’s largest onshore wind turbine? Community-owned & led, generating power + substantial income for the community for decades to come… Have a read of the story of Lawrence Weston: https://www.cse.org.uk/news/we-need-to-come-together/
Climate long-reads of the week
Can Mukesh Ambani disrupt India’s wind energy sector? (Livemint)
“Despite over 30 lakh EVs plying on the roads, India hasn't yet decided the charging standards it must follow.” From: What a mess! Why India's EV charging infra is rotting (Business Today)
G20: Amid high ambition and low consensus, climate action needs a crucial push (CarbonCopy)
What Beauty Parlours In Jharkhand Villages Tell Us About Gender, Caste And Hope (Behanbox)
Purse-seiners, trawlers, and the epic fight over fishing in Tamil Nadu (Himal)
An Interview With the Climate Scientist at the Center of a Scandal (Heatmap)
Liebreich: Net Zero Will Be Harder Than You Think – And Easier. Part I: Harder(BNEF)
As the Hydrogen Industry Vies for Tens of Billions of Federal Dollars, Lax Oversight and Entrenched Fossil Fuel Ties Raise Red Flags (Revolving Door Project)
Karnataka’s Pavagada solar park fails locals, India’s renewable energy goals (Morning Context)
Empty promises: Cargill, soy, banks and the destruction of Bolivia’s Chiquitano forest (Global Witness)
Book of the week
We are reading a non-energy book right now. This is Christopher Harding’s Japan Story: In Search of a Nation (1850 to the present).
The book is a cultural history of one of the most fascinating societies in the world – from the Meiji restoration (when Japan was coerced out of isolationism) to today.