Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
PROGRESSIVE POLICES IN A
CLIMATE CHANGE CONTEXT
governments to develop it”
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. The government is
also considering launching a system of tradable
certificates for industrial energy efficiency where
companies would be set minimum efficiency tar-
gets: those who met them would be able to 'sell'
their 'efficiency surplus' to others who were less
well advanced. In June 2008, the Indian Govern-
ment set up its National Action Plan on Climate
Change setting out a series of 'themes' on every-
thing from solar energy and energy efficiency to
ecosystem protection.
Initiatives are starting to flow thick and fast
as a new generation of 'pro-cleantech' politicians
such as Vilas Muttemwar, the Indian ex-minister
for new and renewable energy, announced plans
for the nation. At the Cleantech India Forum in
October 2008, Muttemwar talked about a major
expansion of solar power capacity by 2020, to
provide electricity to 20 million 'off-grid' rural
households and build 20 million square metres of
green buildings. The ministry is currently work-
ing on a draft renewable energy law that would
stipulate that up to 25% of electricity must come
from renewables by 2020 -which would bring
India into line with, or even ahead of, European
targets.
Meanwhile, a dedicated Special Economic
Zone for renewable energy manufacturing is being
planned for the city of Nagpur. The zone would
focus on strategically important input materials,
process and test equipment, devices and systems
components which would help support the overall
development of this sector. Other policy measures
include rationalizing the customs and excise duty
structure, liberalizing project import norms, and
providing income tax concessions and conces-
sional financing
14
. The combination of these
policies and the overall economic viability of the
nation as a whole provides for self perpetuating
and sustainable growth with investors like Aloe
Private Equity providing capital where needed.
Affordable energy is quite literally the fuel for
development and poverty reduction. Paradoxi-
cally, affordable energy - in the forms it is cur-
rently available - is also fuel to the fire of climate
change. A deal on technology transfer, to make
low-carbon and carbon-free energy accessible
to developing countries, is therefore one of the
most critical pieces of a new global agreement
on climate
12
.
Investors are constantly making deals and there
are multiple facets to every deal, hence the phrase
“deal on technology transfer” should be interpreted
in the widest possible sense. From an investor's
point of view it is the economics that are limiting
the growth in low carbon energy throughout the
world. Today's reality is that clean energy is more
expensive than traditional energy sources - which
is why government policies and subsidies for clean
energy are critical. The reasons that traditional
energy sources cost less includes the approxi-
mately 100 years of innovation and incremental
improvements that have improved the efficiency of
traditional sources compared to the approximately
25 years of developments for wind and solar. For
clean energy to “catch up”, governments need to
continue to favour clean energy with research,
design and demonstration grants.
Traditional energy sources do not account for
the cost of their environmental emissions, a follow-
on deal to the Kyoto Protocol will be needed to
establish a longer term, 25 years plus, mechanism
for pricing carbon. This deal along with effective
demonstration of the technology could form the
basis for a Carbon Capture and Storage industry
and entice investors to make more deals with
enhanced environmental implications.
In India, the various states are taking their
leadership role in climate strategy seriously. Solar
power “is attracting a lot of industrial interest [and
