‘Will try to achieve pledged renewable energy targets sooner’

'Will try to achieve pledged renewable energy targets in lessKOCHI: Ahead of the crucial Paris climate summit, India today said it would try to achieve the pledged renewable energy targets in less than four-and-a-half years from now.

The government’s intention, seen as very significant in the backdrop of the international talks to reach a deal on tackling global warming in Paris next month, was conveyed by Power Minister Piyush Goyal while inaugurating a conference of Power, Renewable Energy and Mines Ministers of states and Union Territories at this coastal city.

“I am confident that we can achieve the Renewable energy targets, not necessarily six-and-half years from now, but possibly even in four-and-half years from now, if we all work together as a team,” he said.

Referring to India’s announced renewable energy plan whereby the target for installed solar power capacity has been set at 100 GW by 2022, the Minister sought cooperation and support of the states to make it a reality by 2020, saying “it is a concern for the environment”.

“It is a concern for the better planet for next generation…. cannot be the concern of Prime Minister Narendra Modi alone, cannot be the concern of the Central government alone. …It has to be shared concern and the shared responsibility of all of us sitting in this room,” he said while strongly pitching for an ambitious renewable energy targets much ahead of the declared time frame.

In its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted to UNFCCC last month, India has pledged to improve emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent by 2030 below 2005 levels.

“INDCs towards climate change, which have been widely acclaimed all over the world as some of the finest measures by any country in the world.

“… Renewable energy is one of the pillars of the INDCs and our renewable energy program is the largest program anywhere in the world in the next five or seven years,” Goyal said.

The Minister said ‘Team India’ will have to work to make India a powerful economy– an economy that cares for the environment, that develops rapidly but develop efficiently ensuring that the effect on the environment is kept to the bare minimum.–PTI