India predicts it will exceed Paris renewable energy target by half

This scene could be a thing of the past in
 India as the country vows not to build
 another coal power station until 2027. 

The Indian government predicts it will vastly exceed its renewable energy target agreed at the Paris Climate Change conference last year.

A draft 10-year energy blueprint published this week predicted the country would be generating 57 per cent of its energy through renewable sources by 2027.

The target set by the conference last year was 40 per cent by 2030.

According to the document, the country is on course to achieve 275 gigawatts of energy from renewable sources by 2027 with a further 100GW generated from “other zero emission sources” like nuclear.

Read Caroline Mortimer’s story in the Independent - “India predicts it will exceed Paris renewable energy target by half.”

Bold Indian push for 100 per cent electric cars by 2030

India's vision is for 100 per cent electric cars, but
 electric or otherwise, the crush will be the same.

India has a grandiose vision for its 1.2 billion people to drive only electric vehicles by 2030. And that’s not even the most ambitious part — the government thinks it can do it without spending a dime.

“We are trying to make this program self-financing,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal said at a youth conference this week, according to The Times of India. “We don’t need one rupee of support from the government. We don’t need one rupee of investment from the people of India.”

Goyal noted that a small working group of politicians will meet in early April to hammer out the details of the goal, which could include a program to incentivize buying electric cars by making them zero-down investments. Later on, the money the car owners would have spent on gas could go to paying off the price of the vehicle, according to Goyal.

Read the Grist story - “India floats ambitious goal: 100 percent electric cars.”

(Rather than simply “rolling over” and acquiescing to the motor car, electric of otherwise, the Indian Government should be doubling and re-doubling its efforts to create a public transport system that services every part of its community.

 Further to that, though, it should be exercising its influence and power to create communities which are in every way possible self-reliant and travel, beyond what is possible using human power (walking and cycling), that people and goods can use a sophisticated public transit system – Robert McLean).