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Climate change has been posing a very critical threat to the Indian economy, and the signs of it are already evident. Some of such signs include heat stress, lowered supply of fresh water, intensive tropical cyclones, soil drying, sea-level rise, and others. 

But, this alarming situation created due to global warming across India is also giving rise to the ultimate scope of scaling the economies. And that’s possible with the rise of new industries and technologies for decarbonising, developing, deploying, and manufacturing at an optimal scale. 

In this article, you will get a clear insight into the state-devel electricity grid decarbonisation initiatives for all of India. So, read along till the end! 

Related Article: Role of Artificial Intelligence in Advancing Green Hydrogen Production

What are the Policy Decisions and Implementations by India for Deep Decarbonization?

India is walking down the lane to achieve a low-carbon economy, and it is currently imposing three different state-level strategies for it, which include:

• Giving jobs to people in the low-carbon sectors

• Support low-carbon economic upliftments

• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions without disrupting the development aspirations

Creating jobs within the green sector is one of the most robust strategies when compared to all the other options listed here. India has put up this policy for most of the states to encourage the transition for workers from specific coal mining sectors to the energy sectors, green jobs, or lighter industries. 

With such efforts, India has significantly achieved more competitive electricity rates by the use of renewable energies and suppressing carbon emissions. With this, the idea behind supporting the low-carbon economic upliftments is achieved to some extent, but there still exists a lot of policies that must be eradicated from the state and national level to speed up the decarbonization effects. 

As per the verdicts are accountable, there are more than 150 specific national-level policies, the instructions of which are meant to encourage the emission of greenhouse gases instead of discouraging it. There is a need to make strict changes to the policies if the carbon emission rate is meant to be suppressed at a rapid rate in India. 

Implications Done to the Existing Policies

India’s specific efforts towards electricity grid decarbonisation can be achieved in several ways. But, there is a need for certain changes within the existing policies. India is in need of implementing a proper sequence of diverse climate policies to bring the economy back on track, which would help the nation achieve the following:

• Robust growth of the economy

• Creation of jobs

• Emission reductions at a high rate

Upon implementation of the required changes to the climate policies of India, the emissions will be controlled, starting from the state level. Over time, it is predicted that India will create around 10s of millions of employment opportunities alongside improving economic growth. The greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by at least 2/3rd before mid-century or 2050 only if the right policies are put to use. 

How is India Planning to Decarbonize the Electricity Grids at the State-Level?

Implementing the state-level policies for decarbonising the electricity grids does come with a lot of challenges, mostly due to the state-wise authority limitations. The states must coordinate with the overlapping authority of diverse institutions and agencies. 

New policies are being introduced in order to overlap the prior ones and then curate new strategies in order to decarbonize the electricity grids on priority. The strategies include:

• Retire the Coal Plants

The providers are asked to pursue the well-managed retirement of the coal plants and then make necessary investments in distribution and transmission infrastructure to help scale the demand response. Double the storage capacity as per BAU (Business-As-Usual) projections, which is 450 GW by the end of 2050. 

With such efforts, the electricity grids of India will then be more flexible as well as ready to be powered with renewable energy for supplying power in the future. 

• Generate Carbon-Free Electricity

You must emphasize on implementing a carbon-free electricity standard for achieving 90% of the electricity through the non-fossil-fuel sources by 2050. It is a target that’s 20% higher than that of the current trajectory set at 70% use of renewables under BAU. 

• Subsidise the Costlier Technologies

The next big strategy is to subsidise the costlier technologies that are being introduced in the market to support you with decarbonization. Now, reduce the subsidies as the technologies you buy become competitive in terms of cost in the long run. 

Conclusion

So, this is a clear understanding of how India and its states are taking initiatives to improve their policies and speed up the decarbonization efforts for the electric grids. Following that, the nation is also taking steps towards revamping the transport sector, industry sector, and others to bring in a complete revolution in achieving the specified decarbonization target by 2050.