Vasudha hosted a webinar to launch Volume 5 of its India Power Outlook Series and a Briefing Paper that assesses Uttar Pradesh’s electricity value chain on March 9, 2022.
Speakers included Ulka Kelkar, Director, Climate, WRI India, Ashwini K Swain, Fellow, Centre of Policy Research, Jyoti Gulia, Founder, JMK Research & Analytics, Urmi Goswami, Assistant Editor, The Economic Times as well as Vasudha CEO, Srinivas Krishnaswamy and Programme Head, Raman Mehta.
During the webinar, Vrinda Gupta and Varun B R from Vasudha gave an overview of the latest edition of the Power Outlook Series entitled, ‘India’s 2030 Targets: A Stepping Stone to Net-Zero by 2070‘ and the Uttar Pradesh Briefing Paper respectively. Ms Gupta highlighted how the 2030 targets are acting as a stepping stone to India’s 2070 Net-Zero targets. She also talked about the significance of COP26 during which all key countries announced their Net-zero targets as they agreed to phased down the use of coal. Mr B R’s presentation, on the other hand, briefed the audience about the UP’s generation, transmission, distribution and end-user perspectives of state’s electricity value chain.
The speakers on their part shared their expert opinion and perspectives on India’s power sector from an environment and green energy transition perspective. Ulka Kelkar highlighted the key driver to the pathway to net-zero for India. She discussed how policymakers can make educated decisions in order to meet the country’s net-zero ambitions. Ashwini Swain on his part discussed how national-level ambitions can be converted into state-level strategies, and therefore, emphasised prioritising short-term aspirations. Jyoti Gulia, talked about the challenges on the pathway to net-zero. In particular, she emphasised the need for policy certainty and validly to create a fostering environment for the renewable energy sector which she said was missing at the moment.
The final speaker Urmi Goswami talked about India’s net-zero targets in relation to the rest of the world. She suggested a number of things that India could look at in order to fulfill its commitment towards Net-Zero by 2070. She said India should look at the European Union as a model to for achieving its targets. She emphasised that Net-Zero was not merely about energy, emission or electricity, but , about a general transition of economy.
The discussion was followed by a Q&A from the audience. You can view the entire discussion below or by clicking here.
