| | SEPTEMBER 20228INDUSTRY INSIGHTSWAYS TO ACCELERATE CLEAN ENERGY GROWTH IN INDIABy Ashvin Patil, Director, Biofuels JunctionLet us first agree that clean energy reforms are inevi-table worldwide, and India is very much a part of this drive. Fossil fuels such as crude oil and coal are the most widely used energy sources and are not only polluting but are responsible for greenhouse gases, which have proven to result into climate change and health hazards. These side effects were not taken seriously till the global researchers warned that if this is not curtailed then the world may face severe repercussions. This consensus was formalised after the famous Paris accord which was signed by 196 countries in 2015. Most participants pledged to reduce or eliminate the greenhouse gas generation with a definitive timeline. US President Joe Biden re-entered the US in the Paris accord effective February 19, 2021. Emerging economies such as India and Africa have greater pressure to limit greenhouse gas emission. India has been a strong crusader of the clean environment drive and has launched National Clean Air Pro-gramme in 2019, a time-bound national level strategy to tack-le increasing air pollution. Historically in India, power and transportation has been the largest environment polluting segment followed by Industrials and agriculture. Coal and Crude oil derivatives have been the fuel of choice and their emission norms were well accepted rather overlooked. It would be interesting to discuss these user segments to un-derstand the limitations and achievements to contribute to clean energy.Transportation: A big relief came to Metro city life when India enacted a mandatory switch for mass transit system to use CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). We can call it a major suc-cess when we look back and imagine how these cities would be in absence of CNG. This has percolated to many tier-II cit-ies too, but lack of gas transport infrastructure and injection system alteration has restricted its adoption. While gas be-came fuel of choice for Public transport, Government has also been pushing for liquid biofuels to be used along with Petrol and Diesel. With Brazil doing it successfully, India too has achieved upto 10 percent mixing and expected to do more. Ethanol success can be attributed to large sugar manufactur-ing industry which has profitably adapted to ethanol produc-tion as a bi-product. The emergence of Electric Mobility is a possible game changer with every automaker planning for it (Read JLR to become 100 percent electric by 2025). All these alternates have greatly contributed to lower pollution from Ashvin Patil, Director
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