Energy Transition has just remained a thing of the future and something to try in the long run. A shift required from fossil fuel energy to renewables has become core to the national targets of almost all nations of the world.
On the similar lines, India is attempting to upscale its achievements in this sector, with a constant push to its development and investment. In addition to several schemes rolling out for promoting Solar Energy, Wind energy, Electric vehicle infrastructure, the Government of India has taken this fight forward to include green hydrogen, biomass energy, bioethanol and biodiesel etc.
But the question is why? Do we see the way our National Leaders informed by a group of experts driven by knowledge and data can?
And it is not just public investment that is flowing into these renewable assets, a major chunk of private corporates is also rushing towards green energy investment. A recent takeover by the JSW Group along with its peers like TATA Power, Adani Green and even the ones waiting to strike Indian Renewable Market Space like Shale, Edelweiss, Brookfield Renewable, is indicative of the new trend already.
Reasons why the world is running after Renewable Energy:
Historical Aspects:
The world witnessed a super increase in carbon emissions on the onset of Industrial resolution when fossils like coal were burnt without a regard for their replenishment in the long run.
The planet, as per the experts, can naturally absorb carbon (close to 100 billion tonnes annually) that humans do release by burning fossils but human interference in all the functioning has tipped off the Earth’s balance.
Even the historic and ongoing forms of modern colonialism through overuse of land and other resources have risen the vulnerability of people, places, biodiversity and economy to a great extent under the impacts of climate change.
Present Aspects:
Survival challenges had come uninvited to humankind. What seems to be the biggest trouble for this present generation is to save itself from the alleged apocalypse that has been accelerated and intensified by our own kinds.
The story of climate change no longer remains a thing to believe in or not. It is already happening like any other phenomena of Earth, be it the making and breaking of mountain ridges, jet streams in the upper atmosphere etc., that too with less reliable patterns and complex integrations.
Moreover, there are rising instances of war, conflicts, internal disturbances across the world that have almost decapitated the oil and gas related supply chains.
Growing tensions around the available resources, push factors like forced migration can lead to more stressed environments and unhealthy human habitations. With time, livelihood disturbances and differences will follow. It is a vicious cycle that may turn out to have no escapable end.
The only way to evade this grim future involves a faster removal of fossil fuels from our energy infrastructure, drawing its basis from the SDG-7: “Ensuring access to affordable, sustainable, reliable and modern energy forms for all”.
And hence, the renewable energy is being held as an upholder of an improved well-being and welfare that is not just limited to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a nation, something that encompasses it all: community-level development, increased local employment, better living standard with health certainty and energy security specific to that region and beyond.
India has also made targets for neutralizing its emissions by 2070. This is going to be a challenging task with its growing population and its consequent energy demands.
With a pace destined to safeguard every life or not, noticeable or not, the energy transition too has begun.
Conflicting needs and choosing a future
Independence Day, especially the 75th one, becomes important in the regard that we may realize that unity affects us all. Harm to either one of us or the weaker-vulnerable sections will not fare well for the country’s own future.
Our country holds diversity and disparity by every means. There is a section whose lives turn unimaginable without dark fossils (coal, oil etc.,) like families earning livelihoods at Jharia, Dhanbad and there are even meaningful lives sprouting out of Renewables. Does the country need to differentiate and prefer?
There shall be an effort to move together or at least be inclusive for the ones who cannot attempt to move at the same pace as privileged ones in this fight to shift to a better future.
We can remember that we are trying to evade a dangerous nightmare if we stick onto dirtier resources but if we ignore the needs of our fellow citizens now, they will continue or shift to traditional energy resources, leaving a scant probability of a peaceful future.