Two years ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ambitious plans to make India a green energy colossus.
It committed to reducing emissions to net zero, or becoming carbon neutral, meaning not increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2070. (greenhouse gases.) Mr. Modi also pledged that India would get half of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, and cut carbon emissions by an estimated one billion tons by the same year.
One businessman who is key to Mr. Modi’s green energy plans is Gautam Adani, one of Asia’s richest men who runs a sprawling port-to-energy group with seven publicly traded companies, including Adani. A renewable energy firm called Green Energy. Mr Adani plans to invest $70bn (£58bn) in green energy and become a global renewables player by 2030. The money is expected to be spent on hybrid renewable power generation, building batteries and solar panels, and harnessing wind energy and green hydrogen.
But Mr. Adani’s recent troubles have raised concerns about whether this could mean a setback for India’s growing energy ambitions. His group’s listed companies have seen nearly $120 billion wiped off their market value after US-based investment firm Hindenburg Research published a report detailing decades of stock manipulation and accounting. Fraud has been alleged. The group termed the allegations as malicious and false, calling them an “attack on India”.
In the first sign of investor jitters, TotalEnergies, a French oil and gas group, put a planned $4bn investment in a green hydrogen project with Adani Group on hold until the situation was “clarified”. (Cal has already invested more than $3bn in energy projects with the group). To reassure investors, the group has said its companies do not face “material refinancing risk or near-term liquidity issues”. An Adani Group spokesperson told JEE News: “We do not expect any changes to the Adani portfolio’s energy transition plans”.
Experts believe it is too early to determine the impact of recent developments on India’s climate plans. “Adani Group is a major player in the green energy space. Some fresh investments may be delayed. If they are unable to raise further financing, it will have some impact on the green energy investments they have made. was originally planned,” says. Vibhuti Garg of the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “But the momentum in renewable energy will continue.”
India’s energy transition will be the largest in the world in the coming decades. With 1.4 billion people, the country still needs to consolidate the last holdout with a large segment of the population and power. India adds a city the size of London to its urban population every year. Industrial activities are increasing. There are extreme weather events like heat waves. The move towards electric vehicles will further increase the demand for electricity.
Not surprisingly, the electricity regulator believes that demand will double in the next five years. India is the second largest producer and consumer of coal in the world. Three-quarters of the electricity generated uses coal and India is still building thermal plants. Still, the plan is that most of the additional capacity will come from renewable sources. And to reach net zero emissions by 2070, India needs $160bn per year between now and 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This is three times the level of investment today.
