2015 was marked by two landmark events— the historic UNFCCC climate change agreement and the

adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDGs were set up by the UN to provide a
blueprint for a sustainable future. They have brought topics like climate change, sustainable
development, gender inequality along with economic growth under the spotlight at an international
level through 17 well-defined SDGs. The 7th SDG is “Affordable and Clean Energy” which aims at
ensuring “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”.

“Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity, and
environmental sustainability. With access to energy, people can study, go to
university, get a job, start a business – and reach their full potential.”
- Ban Ki Moon

Access to affordable, and sustainable energy is the sine qua non of achieving the rest of the SDGs due
to existing deep inter-linkages with all them. Its importance in achieving economic growth is
straightforward. However, it is also linked, both directly and indirectly, to other sustainable
development objectives such as SDG 3 - good health and well-being, SDG 5 - gender equality, SDG 9 -
industry, innovation and infrastructure, and SDG 11 - sustainable cities and communities.

Fig. 1

Energy has been the prime mover of economic growth and development for the last century.
Countries which could capitalise and gain access to energy are currently superpowers or quasi-
superpowers. India, however, consumes around 6% of the world’s power despite contributing 18%
to the world population and access to clean fuel in this consumption is not evenly distributed in rural
vis-à-vis urban geographies. While it is important that India must increase both production and
consumption of power, it comes with various costs including social and health costs. Therefore, it is
paramount that any increase in access to energy must come at lower costs to the environment
compared to historical standards. In that light, India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)
targets to achieve 40% power of installed capacity from non-fossil fuels by 2013. India is executing
the largest renewable energy expansion programme in the world and has set ambitious targets of
175 GW by 2022 of which the lion’s share of 100 GW would come from solar, and 60 GW from wind
energy. Ensuring affordable and sustainable energy for all is a matter of high priority for the existing
government and the Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has referred to sustainable
energy as a “sacred duty” and has stated that sustainable energy is critical to ensure that benefits of
economic development to reach every strata of the societal pyramid. To this end Government of
India has come up with various schemes, some of which are:

1. Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles: FAME Scheme to promote
Electric Vehicles through subsidies.
2. R&D for clean coal: Sanctioned ₹1,500 crores for R&D on advanced coal.
3. National Clean Energy and Environment Fund (NCEEF): To promote clean energy initiatives
and funding research in the area of clean energy and clean environment.
4. National Green Corridor Programme: An inter-state transmission corridor to address
fluctuations in renewable energy generation.

Along with increasing energy production, India also strives to augment this through achieving
improved efficiency. While energy efficiency schemes have been present for a long time, they have
gained increased relevance post 2015. The Energy Conservation Act, 2001 has bolstered the energy
efficiency framework and has also created the Bureau of Energy Efficiency which undertook several
schemes to promote energy efficiency in India.

1. Unnati Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All: UJALA scheme aims to replace conventional,
incandescent bulbs with LEDs thereby leading to energy savings of 100 PWhr. The government
aims to distribute LED bulbs at subsidized costs across the country.
2. Perform Achieve and Trade: Mandatory Targets are assigned to industries to ensure reduced
energy consumption.
3. BEE has performed various energy efficiency demonstration projects in number of MSMEs.
Audits have also been conducted to measure the savings owing to implementation of energy
efficient technologies.

Adoption of the SDGs affect businesses in a big way due to the changing legal environment in the
country. In alignment with government policy, customer perception, and global scenario, even
corporate giants have begun taking sustainable growth extremely seriously and have incorporated it
into the DNA of their companies. Reduction of their environmental footprint is seen as a differentiating
factor and is gaining increasing prominence across companies, across industries, and across
geographies.

Leading conglomerate RPG Group has also entered the renewable energy space eyeing construction
contracts of solar plants and win farms through their subsidiary, KEC international. KEC International
has been involved in laying the 765 KV Bhuj-Banaskanthan transmission line as part of the National
Green Corridor programme. It is also one of the members of the Solar on-grid programme contributing
to the National Roof-Top Mission of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The firm is also
focusing its R&D on emerging technology in the clean energy sector by developing capabilities in
floating solar, energy storage solutions etc.

Telecom behemoth Airtel have invested in novel energy conservation technologies, optimisation of
resources, and e-waste management and are on a path towards eliminating use of fossil-fuel based
energy in their network infrastructure. In addition to improving the efficiency of their power
consumption, Airtel has also been increasing the share of renewable energy in their power mix.
Through deployment of solar panels on towers, and 18 rooftop solar plants at their Main Switching
Centres (MSCs) they have achieved a total capacity of over 1MW. They have also procured over 71
GWhr of green energy through wheeling agreements which basically implies transportation of energy
from the grid to outside the grid.

Going ahead, for India to bridge the gap between economic growth and economic development, it will
need to go above and beyond the existing commitments of increasing renewable energy share etc. It
will need to build resilience to the challenges that a warming earth poses and must invest in converting
challenges of climate change and energy scarcity into opportunities. Close to 5,00,000 people are
employed, directly and indirectly, in the coal mining sector. Drastic reduction of thermal power would
have direct impact on these people and the government must invest in re-skilling them. Furthermore,
while the environmental trends have been improving at the macro level, the social welfare of
communities is directly linked to the local environmental issues like air and water pollution which are
in fact intensifying. To that effect, planning in the Indian context should be all encompassing and must
not focus just on national and macro level developments.

While there are a few ways of funding renewable energy projects such as through external agencies,
green bonds etc. there is a distinct lack of a dedicated ecosystem which caters to the financing needs
of the renewable energy sector. Requirements of banks to earmark a certain portion of their loans for
renewables akin to how it is done for priority sectors would augment the already existing NCEEF and
accelerate growth in this sector. The government could also look towards newer ways of financing
renewables through credit letters, currency hedging, government bonds etc. Whilst energy security is
a matter of utmost importance and is a highly sensitive issue and the rules for External Commercial
Borrowings are being relaxed, inviting foreign investment in this sector would be extremely beneficial
to sectoral growth.

Clean and affordable energy is closely correlated to climate change and just as climate change requires
concerted effort at the international level, the way forward in energy security is through collaboration
on an international level. In the vicinity of India, China is facing similar troubles of stagnation in terms
of performance in the energy domain. This could form common grounds to build strong bilateral ties.
Energy, as mentioned earlier, is a resource of strategic importance and must be seen as a powerful
means for India to accelerate ahead towards its dream of becoming a superpower. Cooperation on
the international level could also be done for Green Financing, with institutions like the New
Development Bank, IMF etc. lending to member countries specifically for renewable energy projects.

With India undergoing rapid urbanisation and the government increasing its focus on sustainable cities
and communities, the importance of affordable and clean energy only increases with time. There is a
close link between the Human Development Index of a country and the per capita energy consumption
and an increase would in effect aid in achieving the status of an upper-middle income economy. The
scope of clean energy must widen from just including electricity to more forms such as cooking fuel
etc. This directly implies that improvement in the clean energy scene of India would lead to
betterment of lives of women and children.

In a nutshell, shifting focus to clean energy sources is crucial for India. India is a significant contributor
to the increasing global energy demand. Our increasing population is leading to increased demands
from all sectors. Fulfilling this increased demand in a climate constrained world requires a paradigm
shift in the way we produce and consume. It requires an economy wide-transformation from
technology to human capital. It would require huge investments in innovation that would aid
development while minimising social costs. While the path ahead is surely not easy and there is no
shortcut, it is imperative that we must focus on creating intellectual wealth and capital that will help
in sustaining economic growth while ensuring better lives for the people of India.

References:

- https://www.in.undp.org/content/india/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-7-
affordable-and-clean-energy.html

- https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-7/

- https://www.cdp.net/en/policy-and-public-affairs/sustainable-development-
goals?gclid=CjwKCAiA8qLvBRAbEiwAE_ZzPVgTz-
46hjGvIxLhh4Y7DdpPHm6gVY02Q2gcbGLzc8gktoJp02XzhRoCF2QQAvD_BwE#dc70d1d48ebc00fedcc
7cbe9a05bb6a9?cid=7855922369&adgpid=85519955407&itemid=&targid=kwd-
333849079164&mt=b&loc=1007748&ntwk=g&dev=c&dmod=&adp=1t1

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals#Goal_7:_Affordable_and_clean_en
ergy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG_Group

http://www.kecrpg.com/KEC%20data/Investor%20relations/Yearly%20reports/Annual%20Report%2
0FY%202018-19.pdf

https://www.airtel.in/airtel-annual-report-2018-19/natural-capital.php