India hosted the G20 Leaders’ Summit, for the first time ever, on September 9-10, 2023 in New Delhi. With the motto, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam which translates to One Earth, One Family, One Future, the summit led to exciting conclusions in the field of clean energy and sustainable development.
Renewable energy adoption is considered one of the key measures for lowering green emissions and ensuring future energy security. The summit was successful in reemphasizing this aim and the G20 leaders have committed that will take efforts to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 through existing targets and policies.
One of the major challenges in increasing global uptake of renewables is related to low-cost finance. The G20 leadership is cognizant of the fact that developing countries at the initial stage of their energy transition will require capital to help them develop initial renewable energy projects. Thus, they have decided to work towards facilitating access to low-cost financing for such countries.
Low-carbon hydrogen, which has taken global centerstage as a key decarbonization fuel, received special focus with the commitment to support the acceleration of production, utilisation, and development of global low-carbon and zero-emission hydrogen markets and developing required standards and certifications.
Finally, India, which is dependent heavily on agriculture-related activities, has long advocated for promoting uptake of biomass and biofuels. The country has in recent years announced many schemes and policies to scale up ethanol blending, compressed biogas uptake, co-firing of biomass with coal and also waste-to-energy plants. Other nations like Brazil also have promoted biofuels uptake. In order to accelerate global uptake of biofuels, a Global Biofuels Alliance was launched on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.
Going forward, these nations need to work closely together to fast-track clean energy uptake and reduce emissions as they collectively fight climate-related risks.
