Workers install solar panels on the roof of a residential apartment building in Kochi. , Photo Credit: AP
IAnn Upcoming G20 ForumIndia plans to propose a multiple energy path approach to accommodate different contexts and development paths of countries. The diversity of India’s states, which require multiple pathways, will determine their domestic energy transition. India’s global climate pledges – 50% non-fossil electricity generation capacity by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2070 – are supported by domestic energy targets at the national level. Are these goals actionable at the state level? How do we align with state-level positions and priorities?
States are important actors in India’s energy transformation as there is multi-level governance of energy production and use. An effective transformation will require bridging the ambitions and implementation gaps between the Center and the States. Simultaneously, national ambitions need to factor in different incentive structures, processes and institutional capacities at the state level.
why states matter
India’s achievements on its 2022 target for 175 GW of renewable energy provide some insight into the complexities. While it achieved a significant portion of the target, only Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan met their individual targets. Furthermore, about 80% of the current renewable energy capacity is confined to six states in the west and south of India.
In a federal setting, states count for four functions critical to the energy transition. First, the state as an area of implementation is critical to the attainment of national goals. While the Center can set targets, and use carrots and sticks to help achieve them, the achievement of these targets often depends on how they align with state priorities and capabilities . Second, legacy issues in the power sector, such as high losses, unreliable supply and quality of service, could be exacerbated by the transition if left unaddressed. These are embedded in the political economy of the state and must be addressed at the state level. Third, states have been instrumental in India’s energy transformation as laboratories of policy innovation. For example, early initiatives by Gujarat and Rajasthan on solar energy and Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu on wind energy technologies have contributed significantly to the use of renewable energy at the national level. Similarly, PM KUSUM aims to adopt successful state experiments on solarization of agriculture at the national level. Fourth, states can also become barriers to national goals, especially when the goals are not perceived to be in line with state priorities.
While India has set laudable goals for its energy transition and is working towards creating incentive and enforcement mechanisms, an important next step is to engage with diverse state contexts, capabilities and priorities. These are shaped by the interplay between multiple drivers, constraints and enablers, including available techno-economic options, fiscal space, and social and political imperatives. In the context of energy transition, one such factor is cross-sectoral inter-linkages, barriers and opportunities for transition. These interrelationships are being recognized in the policy discourse. For example, there have been analyzes on how electric vehicle penetration and urbanization will affect energy demand patterns or how energy transition can be enabled by transport modal shift and promotion of green buildings.
These are steps in the right direction. However, an effective transition requires a multi-layered planning and execution strategy, consideration of inter-relationships and implications, and cross learning. Examples of such considerations include whether state targets add to national targets, the management of renewable energy-enabled load migration, the changing role of institutions, how these will affect legacy issues, and the implications of these. resources needed to cope.
States are important entry points to engage with policy vision, plans and actions. The Centre’s mandate to update state action plans on climate change, recommendations to set up state-level steering committees for energy transition, and regular meetings of central and state energy ministers reinforce the importance of states. Central agencies have also developed several indexes that rank states on various aspects of energy transition. While important, these efforts focus primarily on outcomes. We need to supplement this with an analysis of state-level preparedness for the energy transition.
a state level framework
To complement the techno-economic dialogue, a state-level framework is needed to understand plans, actions and governance processes towards energy transition. Implementing such a framework would enable a quicker transition in a number of ways. First, it helps to broaden the transition discourse from a narrow set of outcomes to include the processes that shape and shape outcomes. Understanding the effects of the transition on transparency and accountability in processes, and the affordability and reliability of services, especially under what circumstances, is important. Second, it leads to greater transparency which can enable stakeholder participation in processes and ensure public legitimacy and buy-in to complex decisions. Finally, viewing the energy transition through state preparedness will lead to greater sensitivity in national policy dialogue to state-level variations on priorities, capacities and opportunities, and thus lead to a practical, yet rapid, scale and energy transition. Speed.