New calls for sustainable development – Issue #93
Why is India half-hearted in its embrace of renewables?
News of the Week
Why is India half-hearted in its embrace of renewables?
This half-heartedness barely needs elaboration. As headlines show every day, India is simultaneously pushing renewables and fossil fuels. The answer doesn’t lie in relative economics of coal or oil. Renewables are cheaper. The answer doesn’t lie in base load requirements either. A mix of renewables will produce 24x7 power as well.
One part of the answer lies in the political economy of coal and oil. Some of India’s largest conglomerates operate in these sectors. As Mongabay reported, mining giants like Vedanta and Essel rank amongst the biggest buyers of electoral bonds. But even that is not the whole story. As Business Standard reported last week, there is also India’s great reliance on tax revenues from fossil fuels.
“India’s quest to get to net-zero by 2070 faces its share of obstacles in the form of a slowdown in solar installations, a less than satisfactory electric vehicles scale-up, and a compulsion to build new coal generators,” reported the business daily. “But the elephant in the room is a contribution of Rs 7.5 trillion in revenues to the exchequer that the oil and gas business generates on an annual basis.”
Renewables, wrote Business Standard, chip away “at the tax edifice, assiduously built over the last few decades by successive governments, leaving less on the table for federal and state administrations to fund capital spending and social budgets. The newer fuels, including compressed biogas, ethanol or electric, offer little to the government at the moment by way of revenues — rather, they are a drain on state finances.”
This is an insightful report. Do read if you have missed it.
Another eye-catching report last week came from the sunlit uplands of espionage. “Researchers have uncovered a new espionage campaign targeting Indian government agencies and the country’s energy industry with a modified version of an open-source information stealer called HackBrowserData that can collect browser login credentials, cookies and history,” said The Record. According to researchers at Dutch cybersecurity company EclecticIQ, it said, hackers exfiltrated 8.81 GB of data. “The victimized government entities included Indian agencies responsible for electronic communications, IT governance and national defense. From the private energy companies, the hackers exfiltrated financial documents, personal details of employees and details about drilling activities in oil and gas,” it said.
Other news. Reliance’s decision to pick up 26% in Adani’s Mahan Energen for Rs 50 crore created waves.
The news, given it featured India’s top two conglomerates, triggered speculation about a possible alliance between them. But, as the New Indian Express reported, the deal is nothing of the kind. For a unit to be considered a captive power plant, its customer has to hold at least 26% in the unit.
While on Adani, read this report, too. It lists Adani’s fresh expansions.
While on energy, India's hydroelectricity output fell at the steepest pace in at least 38 years.
Given poor rains, it posted a 16.3 percent drop in generation. In tandem, NTPC logged its highest-ever generation — 422 billion units in Fy24. Hardwired into such patterns are larger questions about India’s future energy mix. Reliance is planning a foray into pumped storage projects. The crisis at Azure Power — which has been hit by a series of high-profile exits and an investigation by US authorities — might be reaching a denouement of sorts. News emerged last week that the firm is exploring a “possible stake sale to a strategic partner or even a complete sale of the business”.
This newsletter cannot recall a definitive piece on why Azure fell off the rails. If you, dear readers, know of any, do let us know.
Continuing with renewables, nearly half of all Indians are willing to buy EVs — but want the price to come below Rs 10 lakh. Currently, there are hardly any models operating in that price band. MG Comet is one rare exception. There is also a question about imaginative design here. Given EVs are costly, car-makers (including the Chinese) are rolling out large, plush EVs. Maybe what the world needs, however, are smaller, quirkier designs.
Climate Video of the Week
Biden sets out to supercharge industrial decarbonization (Volt)
Climate Long-Reads
This industrial metal can electrify India’s growth. But where are the ores? https://www.livemint.com/industry/energy/this-industrial-metal-can-electrify-india-s-growth-but-where-are-the-ores-11711447057535.html
Why Forest Conservation Amendment Act may be deemed unconstitutional (Down To Earth)
Solar rooftop in India shifting gears: From laggard to leader (IEEFA)
From hugs to rights: The Chipko Movement’s legacy in forest conservation and governance (The Leaflet). While on Chipko, also see this report in Nature: How a tree-hugging protest transformed Indian environmentalism. Also see this: a new environmental movement is taking shape in the Himalayas. One led by Ladakh.
Why Kashmir’s activists are turning to the National Green Tribunal to save its forests and wetlands (Scroll)
Nepal’s unescapable trap of migration, farming and climate change (Himal)
Nations Are Undercounting Emissions, Putting UN Goals at Risk (Yale 360)
This Kentucky coal mine could transform into pumped-hydro grid storage (Canary Media)
Octopuses Are Highly Intelligent. Should They Be Farmed for Food? (Yale 360)
Bengaluru’s water math is badly failing as ‘zero water days’ loom large (Question Of Cities). Also see this report in Scroll: How Bengaluru’s water crisis is rooted in the neglect of its lakes.
Urban Company wants to ignite the RO water-purifier market when RO itself is under fire (The Ken).
Book of the week
Life on this planet is a miracle.
A multitude of species, all superbly attuned, generation by generation, over millions of years, to tiny ecological niches. This is why zebras are striped; the saiga antelopes have that weird proboscis for a nose, and birds like the Red Knot leave Siberia in the winter for the coast off Mauritania.
What happens when, in the span of just 200 or so years, those ecological niches start vanishing?
A while ago, this newsletter had flagged Adam Welz’s The End Of Eden: Wild Nature in the age of Climate Breakdown as a book to read. We have finally begun reading it — and it is outstanding. Climate change, as myriad books have already told us, will drive species to extinction. What Welz does is show the mechanics of that extinction. Trees get hit by borers seeking cooler climates and moving north. Migratory species find that the central structure of their life — like the synchronisation of food, time and place — is not working as before.
Here is a review.