India Seeks To Drive Global Energy Demand By Doubling Its Consumption - Prime Minister

NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2020) India is set to double its energy consumption in the long run in a bid to drive global energy demand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the virtual India Energy Forum organized as part of the CERAWeek annual energy conference, adding that the country was also on the way to meet its target of receiving 175 gigawatts of energy from renewable sources by 2022.

"This year has been challenging for the energy sector. Energy demand fell by almost one third. There has been price instability. Investment decisions have been impacted. Leading global bodies project that there will be a contraction in global energy demand over the next few years also. But, these agencies project India to emerge as a leading energy consumer. India is set to nearly double its energy consumption over the long term," Modi said, as cited on the prime minister's official website.

The prime minister also noted that India was among the most active countries in promoting renewable sources of energy, as well as the most attractive emerging market for clean energy investment.

"As I said, India will always work keeping in mind global good. We are well on track to meet the commitment we made to the global community [under the 2015 Paris climate deal]. We had aimed to increase the renewable energy installed capacity by 175 GW by 2022. We have further extended this goal to 450 GW by 2030. India has one of the lowest carbon emissions than the rest of the industrialized world. Yet, we will continue to make efforts to fight climate change," Modi said.

The official also outlined seven core dimensions of India's energy map, including accelerating the country's efforts to move toward a gas-based economy, cleaner use of fossil fuels, greater reliance on domestic sources to drive biofuels, increasing the contribution of electricity to de-carbonize mobility and digital innovation across all the energy systems.