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Coal is dirty -- it makes up for 40 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, its mining wreaks havoc on the environment and burning it produces pollutants like mercury which are linked to acid rain and particulate matter that causes respiratory illnesses. But the war in Ukraine has caused a mini-energy crisis globally, pushing its use to record levels this year. And India, the world's third largest energy consumer, was at the forefront of the global rise in coal usage as it fell back on the easiest available fossil fuel in the face of a surge in oil and gas prices that threatened to derail the economic recovery from the pandemic. The trends of coal consumption and production this year indicate that the dirty fuel is here to stay despite the nation's ambitious target of meeting 50 per cent of energy requirements from renewable energy and non-fossil fuel capacity of 500 GW by 2030. India's coal consumption has doubled since 2007 at an annual growth rate of 6 per cent an
Spiralling energy costs caused by various economic factors and the Ukraine war could be a turning point toward cleaner energy, the International Energy Agency said in a report Thursday. The Paris-based organisation found the global demand for fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas, is set to peak or plateau in the next few decades. The report looked at scenarios based on current policies and said that coal use will fall back within the next few years, natural gas demand will reach a plateau by the end of the decade and rising sales of electric vehicles mean that the need for oil will level off in the mid-2030s before ebbing slightly by mid-century. Total emissions are currently going up each year, but slowly. "Energy markets and policies have changed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not just for the time being, but for decades to come, said the IEA's executive director Fatih Birol. A surge in demand following COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lifting and ...
India on Wednesday asked Beijing-based multilateral lending agency AIIB to scale up investments in priority areas like clean energy and infrastructure sector with a special focus on education and health. Addressing the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India has embarked on the path of a self-reliant economy and therefore has been successful in mitigating the negative effects of the pandemic. As regards AIIB, she said, it needs to scale-up investments in key priority areas, including clean energy and energy efficiency, disaster resilient infrastructure, social infrastructure with a special focus on education and health, and digital infrastructure in order to ensure a meaningful impact is achieved and resources are not scattered in multiple areas. As public resources alone are insufficient to meet the vast infrastructure needs of the members, she advised that the bank should not only .
India is working to transform its energy landscape with a significant clean energy share, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh has told the international community while asserting the country will achieve net zero emissions by 2070. By 2030, India has agreed to reach 500GW non-fossil energy capacity, shift 50 per cent of energy its requirements to renewable sources, lower overall anticipated carbon emissions by one billion tonnes and reduce carbon intensity of the economy by 45 per cent over the 2005 levels. "India is continually working towards transforming the energy landscape of the country with significant clean energy share," Singh said at the Global Clean Energy Acceleration Forum, the joint convening of the 7th Mission Innovation and 13th Clean Energy Ministerial, here. Highlighting the need to strengthen long-term private sector engagement, he said the transition to bioeconomy is based on projects under development and deployment with high investment and high-risk
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday stressed on the need for automobile industry's innovation for green alternatives to ensure protection and conservation of environment as well as help in making India self-reliant. In a written address to the annual session of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Modi said, "Amrit Kaal is an opportunity to achieve self-sufficiency in every sector and the automobile sector is no exception." The automobile sector has contributed to all-round development and growth of the economy through new avenues for employment generation, the Prime Minister said in his message read out by SIAM President Kenichi Ayukawa. "It is a need of the hour that the automobile industry's innovation for greener alternatives attains a new momentum, to ensure the protection and conservation of environment, as well as help in making India self-reliant," Modi said. He also expressed hope that the various stakeholders gathered at the convention that include
Samsung Electronics is shifting away from fossil fuels and aiming to entirely power its global operations with clean electricity by 2050, a challenging goal that experts say could be hampered by South Korea's modest climate change commitments. South Korea-based Samsung is a top producer of computer memory chips and smartphones and, by some estimates, the biggest energy consumer among hundreds of global companies that have joined the RE100 campaign to get 100 per cent of electricity from renewable sources like wind or solar power. In announcing its target on Thursday the company said it aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions across its mobile device, display panel and consumer electronics divisions by 2030, and across all global operations including semiconductors by 2050. It plans to invest 7 trillion won (USD 5 billion) through 2030 on projects aimed at reducing emissions from process gases, controlling and recycling electronic waste, conserving water and minimizing pollutants.