The Lok Sabha on Monday passed a bill that seeks to promote the use of non-fossil fuels, including ethanol, green hydrogen and biomass.
The bill also aims to help the country meet its international commitments on climate change.
Piloting the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Energy Minister RK Singh said “this is the bill for the future” and added that renewable energy capacity addition in the country was the fastest in the world.
The bill was later passed by Parliament after rejecting amendments by some opposition members.
Among other provisions, it contains penalties for violations by industrial units or vessels as well as for manufacturers if a vehicle does not comply with fuel consumption norms.
“With the passage of time and in connection with the energy transition with special focus on promotion of new and renewable energy and National Green Hydrogen Mission, a need has arisen to further amend the said Act to facilitate the attainment of ‘Panchamrit’ as five nectar elements presented by India at the Conference of Parties -26 in Glasgow last year,” according to the Statement of Purpose and Reasons for the Bill.
The changes also seek to promote renewable energy and the development of a domestic carbon market to combat climate change.
The bill further seeks to introduce new concepts such as carbon trading and mandating the use of non-fossil sources to ensure faster decarbonisation of the Indian economy and help achieve sustainable development goals in line with the Paris Agreement.
Recently, the Union Cabinet approved India’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which incorporates two of the pledges made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Glasgow conference – reducing the emissions intensity of GDP by 45 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, and achieving about 50 percent cumulative electricity installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by that year.
“India has emerged as the most attractive destination for renewable energy investments and the whole world is saying so,” Singh said.
The minister also said that the government has connected every village to the electricity grid in just about 987 days, where the target given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to complete the task was 1,000 days.
“With one stroke, we connected every village, every home. We converted our country from power deficit to power surplus… we had promised that by 2022 we will establish 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity,” he said.
“People say we’ve missed it, but we haven’t missed it. We’re not only on target, but we’re ahead of the target,” Singh said, adding that if the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t been there, the government has been far ahead of the target.