Modi’s Europe bet with clean energy

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By Manish Anand

New Delhi, June 27: Russian President Vladimir Putin has shaken up Europe. The Russian war in Ukraine by all assessments in Europe seems to be as endemic as is the Civid-19.

For long Europe has lived in the comforts of the Russian pipelines pumping oil and gas to keep its economy and comforts running. That pipeline now faces the prospects of being shut down by the US.

The ongoing G7 Summit of the most industrialized nations – US, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and Germany – is showing energy on the climate change and the need to push the clock on the adoption of the clean energy and cut down on carbon emissions.

The commitment of coming up with USD 600 billion infrastructure fund by the G7 countries on the back of the similar USD 50 billion fund unveiled at the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework initiative have the potential to cause a domino effect in the acceleration of the adoption of clean energy-based infrastructure in the developing countries.

That gives the backdrop to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regular appearances at the G7 Summits since 2018. India has an opportunity, and Europe is looking at New Delhi as a pivot in the post-pandemic world order, while China has been bracketed with ‘rogue’ Russia.

In his remarks at the G7 Summit during the session on ‘Investing in a better future: Climate, Energy and Health’, Modi positioned India as a pro-environment country, contributing just under five per cent of the carbon emissions despite having 17 per cent of the world’s population.

“Our dedication to climate commitments is evident from the performance. We’ve achieved the target of producing 40 per cent of the electricity from the non-fossil sources nine years ahead of the target. The target of 10 per cent ethanol-blending of petrol and diesel has been achieved five months before the target,” said Modi at the Summit.

India has the world’s first fully solar-powered airport, said Modi, adding that the vast Railway network will soon achieve net zero emission target in this decade.

In fact, the Katra railway station along with some other are fully solar powered. India is also the headquarters of the International Solar Alliance, and states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have made huge strides in installing solar power bases on huge tracts of arid lands.

Europe is seething against Russia. That fear will push the European countries to loosen the purse strings and hopefully also share their technologies in clean energy with the developing countries. That must be the hope of Modi, as he’s currently in Germany twice within a span of a month.

Modi had also held intensive bilateral and multilateral meetings with Nordic countries consisting of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland in May. These countries also accord challenges to climate change as their top priority.