(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday his commitment to ramping up India's renewable energy supplies is not aimed at "impressing the world" following international pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Modi, who stormed to power at May elections pledging to reform the economy, said he was determined to meet the energy needs of India, which suffers regular blackouts and is heavily reliant on polluting coal to produce electricity.
"Our stress on renewable energy is not aimed at impressing the world, but to meet the energy requirements of our people," Modi said, as he opened a conference on renewable energy aimed at attracting foreign investment.
While India has committed to hugely expanding its solar and wind sectors, it has long resisted pressure to commit to any emissions targets on the grounds that it could hamper its economy and hurt the poor.
During a visit to India last month, US President Barack Obama said the world does not "stand a chance against climate change" unless developing countries such as India reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.
But Modi has denied he is under pressure from other countries, after China and the United States announced a pact in November in the build-up to a UN climate change conference in Paris late this year.
Currently about 60% of India's electricity comes through coal, while some 300mn people do not have access to electricity at all.
The government says it needs to attract $100bn of investment to help achieve its ambitious goal of boosting solar energy capacity to 100,000 megawatts by 2020.
The three-day Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet and Expo (Re-Invest) conference, attended by representatives from 41 countries, saw 293 local and foreign companies commit to invest in producing 266 gigawatts of renewable energy over five years.
Modi also urged Indians themselves to help save the country's resources, including by changing their lifestyles, in a nod to a rising middle class.
"We don't realise that we are eating into our future generations' share of resources. We don't realise that we are slowly destroying our natural assets.
"If there is any nation that can show ways of protecting humankind from global warming to world, it is India.
"Loving nature and living in harmony with nature is a part of India's DNA."
Speaking of the importance of solar energy in the Indian consciousness, Modi referred to increasing the scope of renewable sources in the current context.
"In our mythology we have imagined the sun god Surya riding on seven horses. In today's age the first four of the seven horses would respectively be thermal (coal), gas, hydro and nuclear energy.
"We need to utilise more the three other horses of solar, wind and biomass."
Modi said the over 50 countries identified to be blessed with good solar radiation were trying to work together on research and development in solar energy and on finding ways to make it economically viable.
The UN has declared 2014-24 as the Decade of Sustainable Energy. Its Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government last month to support the UN objective to make sustainable energy accessible for all.
Speaking at the same conference, the head of US-based First Solar said India will struggle to hit its "hugely ambitious" renewable energy target if it fails to make more land available for plants and ensure utilities have the means to buy in clean energy.
First Solar Chief Executive Jim Hughes said he welcomed the government's commitment to develop 100,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022 - a 33-fold rise from today's level - but that in some Indian states there were question marks over the financial viability of solar schemes.
"It makes it difficult to develop projects in these circumstances," Hughes said.
First Solar, based in Tempe, Arizona, makes solar panels and also builds solar power plants, many of which it sells to power producers.
First Solar said it planned to develop 5,000 MW of solar in India by 2019, while US rival SunEdison announced plans to build 15,200 MW of solar and wind power by 2022.
Hughes said First Solar needed to secure land, agree financing and reach power purchase agreements with buyers before building the capacity.
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