Sustainable Development

Sustainable development in India now encompasses a variety of development schemes in social, cleantech (clean energy, clean water and sustainable agriculture) and human resources segments, having caught the attention of both Central and State governments and also public and private sectors.

In fact, India is expected to begin the greening of its national income accounting, making depletion in natural resources wealth a key component in its measurement of gross domestic product (GDP).

Sustainable energy investment in India went up to US$ 4.1 billion in 2008, up 12 per cent since 2007, according to a report by UN Environment Program (UNEP), ‘Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009.'

The largest portion of investment went to the wind sector, which grew at 17 per cent from US$ 2.2 billion to US$ 2.6 billion.

Corporate Initiatives

According to a study released in May 2010 by leading Swiss lender, Bank Sarasin, Indian information technology (IT) giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), telecom major Bharti Airtel and wind-turbine maker, Suzlon are among the global firms having high sustainable development standards. Other Indian firms, which have high level of sustainability standards mentioned in the report include India's largest manufacturer of irrigation plants, Jain Irrigation and leading IT-firm Infosys.

The study, which was conducted among 360 emerging market companies, found that a third of these firms have high rating in terms of sustainability.

Further, Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) commercial arm Antrix Corporation was awarded the Globe Sustainability Research Award 2010, set up by Stockholm-based Global Forum, for fostering sustainable development. The prestigious award has been conferred on Antrix for its contribution to improve sustainable livelihood of the rural poor while reducing their vulnerability to climate risks.

• Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS), an organisation involved in the steel major's community building initiatives, embarked on an initiative to empower communities by creating awareness on the Right to Information (RTI) Act at the grassroot level, in October 2009.
• Wipro Infotech, provider of IT and business transformation services, has unveiled its new eco-friendly and toxin-free desktops, manufactured with materials completely free of deadly chemicals like polyvinyl chloride and brominated flame retardants.
• Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd and GE Power & Water have signed an agreement, to work together and offer environment management solutions, including waste-water treatment and recycling.

National Solar Mission

According to Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Dr Farooq Abdullah, the government targets to set up 1,100 mega watt (MW) grid-connected solar plants, including 100 MW capacity plants as rooftop and smaller solar power plants for the first phase of the National Solar Mission till March 2013. The government has approved US$ 974.65 million for this plant.

In addition, the government plans to generate 20,000 MW solar power by 2022 under the three-phase National Solar Mission, with 2000 MW capacity equivalent off-grid solar applications, including 20 million solar lights, also planned to be installed during this period.

Clean Energy and Technology

The Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI) survey for corporate India, released in June 2009, reveals that 47 per cent of the respondents are paying more attention to energy efficiency, compared to 2008 and 94 per cent of the respondents feel that energy management is extremely important. An increase in capital investments for energy efficiency is needed according to 62 per cent respondents, while 72 per cent of the respondents feel their organisations can achieve more energy efficiency from operating budgets. More than 92 per cent of the respondents say energy efficiency is a priority in new construction as well as in renovation projects.

Green Industry Bio Energy Private Limited, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by Emergent Ventures and US-based Indus Terra is aiming to use poultry litter in Haryana to generate power for the state power grid.

The power project, costing US$ 13.23 million, will convert poultry manure into electricity and slurry into fertiliser by the process of anaerobic digestion at a high temperature through a process called thermophilic digestion.

The 5.6 MW power project would be built in two phases; phase one with a capacity of 1.4 MW and the second with 4.2 MW capacity.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) is looking to create a demand for energy efficient, products, goods and services awareness. The Bureau has set up an energy efficiency financing platform (EEFP), which aims at ensuring availability of finance at reasonable rates for energy efficiency project implementation and its expansion.

The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA), Power Finance Corporation, SIDBI, PTC India Ltd and HSBC India have come together to reap the estimated US$ 15.9 billion energy efficiency investment market in India, as they join the Bureau of Energy Efficiency's (BEE) proposed financing platform.

Corporate Investments

• Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica, a Spanish company specialising in sustainable energy technologies, especially fabrication of wind turbines and setting up of wind farms, has set up a 500-MW per year capacity facility in Chennai at an investment of US$ 54.7 million.
• CLP India aims to add around 200 MW of wind power installations every year to its portfolio and has committed an investment of over US$ 2.2 billion towards this. It recently opened its 99-MW Theni Wind Farm in Tamil Nadu taking its total wind power portfolio in India to 446 MW.

Government Initiatives

• In the Union Budget 2010-11, the government announced the setting up of the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) for funding research and innovative projects in clean technologies. To build the corpus of the NCEF, clean energy cess on coal produced in India at a nominal rate of US$ 1.08 per tonne will be levied. This cess will also apply on imported coal.
• Moreover, the plan outlay for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been increased by 61 per cent, from US$ 134.7 million in 2009-10 to US$ 217.2 million in 2010-11.
• The Urban Development Ministry has launched a US$ 300 million green urban transport project called the Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP). Under the project, green urban transport will be introduced in select cities to overcome pollution and other hazards of the existing urban transport system, including traffic impediments for pedestrians.
• The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has announced renewable energy certificate (REC) norms in a bid to promote power generation from clean sources in the country.
• The Orissa government has come out with a draft Action Plan on Climate Change entailing an investment of around US$ 3.6 billion in 11 key sectors over the next five years. It has proposed to put in place a Climate Change Agency to ensure effective implementation of the plan. Orissa has become the first state to have formulated the Climate Change Action Plan.

While investment in solar energy rose from US$ 18 million in 2007 to US$ 347 million in 2008, most of it was channelised to setup module and cell manufacturing facilities.

Small hydro investment grew by about fourfold to US$ 543 million in 2008.

India's sustained effort towards reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) will ensure that the country's per capita emission of GHG will continue to be low until 2030-31, and it is estimated that the per capita emission in 2031 will be lower than per capita global emission of GHG in 2005, according to a new study. Even in 2031, India's per capita GHG emissions would stay under four tonnes of CO2, which is lower than the global per capita emission of 4.22 tonnes of CO2 in 2005.

India has been ranked ninth in the tree planting roll of honour in 2009 in a campaign to plant a billion trees, which was launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in November 2006. The country registered 96 million trees till 2009.

Two Indian companies, namely, Wipro and HCL, have figured in the list of top five green electronics brands as per the latest edition of the Guide to Greener Electronics by Greenpeace released in October 2009. They have been featured because of their strong focus on the e-waste management and climate control. The study which for the first time has included climate and energy as criteria for evaluation has placed Wipro in joint second position with Samsung.

The number of carbon credits issued for emission reduction projects in India is set to triple over the next three years to 246 million by December 2012 from 72 million in November 2009, according to a CRISIL Research study.

This will cement India's second position in the global carbon credits market (technically called Certified Emission Reduction units or CERs). The growth in CER issuance will be driven by capacity additions in the renewable energy sector and by the eligibility of more renewable energy projects to issue CERs. Consequently, the share of renewable energy projects in Indian CERs will increase to 31 per cent.

CRISIL Research expects India's renewable energy capacity to increase to 20,000 MW by December 2012, from the current 15,542 MW.