Is Embracing Renewable Energy Help India to Become a $5 trillion Economy?
Published on : Saturday 28-03-2020
India is currently on the way to become the fastest-growing economy in the world. The country's over 60% of the population under the age of 25. This helps the country to drive a sustainable approach to make the economy productive. India is the largest country in the use of smartphones. Its rapid economic growth has benefited the country in several ways but it has been clouded by a demeaning environment and natural resource scarcity.
According to the 10th EPI (Environmental Performance Index) report developed by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in association with the World Economic Forum, India ranks 177 out of 180 countries in terms of overall environmental quality. The report further reveals that lower ranks on the EPI illustrate the lack of national sustainability that can only be accomplished by taking strategic efforts on a variety of grounds such as cleaning up the air quality, conserving biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In a collection of 47 peer-reviewed research papers with 91 different authors, collated by Stanford University, assessed diverse environments to analyze whether individual countries or entire regions could get by solely relying on renewables. The papers explore various situations and geographies, including small island states, major powers and countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In each case, they found energy for electricity, transport, building heating or cooling, and industry can be supplied reliably with 100% or near 100%, renewable energy, at different locations around the world.
As per the economic survey last year, India stands fourth in wind power, fifth in solar power and fifth in overall renewable power installed capacity globally. The survey says the cumulative renewable power installed capacity, excluding hydro above 25 MW, has more than doubled from 35 GW on 31st March 2014 to 78 GW on 31st March 2019. The target is to achieve an installed capacity of renewable-based power of 175 GW by 2022.
To become a $5 trillion economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year announced his vision of achieving the target of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. Meanwhile, in a data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the GDP of the country was $2.7 trillion in 2018. However, there is no doubt that the country’s economy needs to be almost doubled by 2024-25 to accomplish the goal.
One another report from the World Bank indicates that low-emission and resource-efficient greening of India’s economy is possible at a very low cost in terms of GDP growth. Furthermore, it suggests the implementation of green growth strategies to strengthen sustainable growth in the country and to fight against environmental degradation and natural resource depletion.
If we look at other countries in the world, Saudi Arabia, for instance, is going to adopt a 100% renewable energy system by 2040, according to reports. While the country is known for its oil deposits, it is also affluent in another energy source, such as solar energy. It is said that solar power could account for 79% of the country’s energy demand by 2050, with the help of enhanced battery and water storage solutions to lower energy system costs.