India has moved to the centre stage of International Energy Affairs: IEA

New Delhi: Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol on Thursday said that India has moved to the Centre stage of international Energy Affairs and is a role model for other major emerging economies. Speaking at a virtual launch of the Energy Technology Perspectives 2020, a new study of IEA which focusses on the technology needs and opportunities for reaching international climate and sustainable energy goals, Birol praised the Indian government for its efforts in providing clean energy to millions by way of schemes like Ujjawala and Ujala.

Delivering the keynote address Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar said, that the International energy report is extremely important and has raised many valid issues. The Minister highlighted that today India is the only country in the G-20 nations which is 2 degrees compliant in keeping with NDCs presented in Paris, and has taken many decisive actions, in fighting Climate Change, not only at the government level but even at the private level, which shows our commitment and resolve.

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The Minister made an appeal to the World that Instead of talking about 2050, we must talk of 2020, of 2030 and 2040 and there needs to phased targets and countries should be committed to achieving those.

Highlighting the key role of finances and technology in providing clean energy and enhanced Climate actions, Javadekar said that country specific, appropriate and affordable technologies is the need of the hour because every climate action comes with a cost. We cannot tax the people for that cost.

Speaking on India's actions on renewable energy the Environment Minister said that India's renewable energy now stands at 89 GW. It has increased by 170 % in the last 6 years which is a significant increase. "Our Hon'ble PM Shri Narendra Modi has declared 175 GW of renewable power by 2022 and our aspirational goal stands at 450 GW of renewable energy.", said Javadekar

"We are improving energy efficiency and simultaneously also giving a big push to e-vehicles. The demand for EVs is growing and the prices are being slashed and we are also providing for more battery charging infrastructure. Battery swapping policy has also been adopted. We are giving subsidy for electrical buses which are already operational across many cities" highlighted the Minister and said that India is contributing massively on the energy front and the government is working tirelessly in this direction.

The IEA report launched today lays stress, among other things, especially on how Governments have an outsized role to play in supporting transitions towards low emissions by way of effective policy toolkits towards tackling emissions from existing infrastructure and technologies, strengthening markets for technologies at an early stage of adoption, developing and upgrading infrastructure that enables technology deployment, boosting support for research, development and demonstration and expanding international technology collaboration.

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