India is playing a crucial role in combating climate change. Following its G-20 presidency in 2023, the country’s leadership in the global energy transition is even more pronounced. The concluding Energy Transitions Ministerial Meeting shared twenty outcomes that highlighted a vision for interconnected grids and regional power systems integration through “ambition, transition, and transmission.” This objective of greater energy interconnection and trade is shared by the ASEAN power grid through multi-energy complementation and solutions to seasonal variation by connecting the grid to both China and South Asia by 2050.
During COP28, a global commitment was made to triple renewables by 2030 from the existing target of 2.5 times under ongoing policies and market structures. Against the backdrop of these policies, this essay focuses on India’s strategic positioning in Asia for integrating renewables after the country attained nearly complete electrification in 2018 and for aiding the commitment toward panchamrit (five nectars) announced at COP26 in Glasgow. This brief “Green Grids: India’s Pathways and Asia’s Preparedness” by The National Bureau of Asian Research explores the prospects for international grid integration to support more renewables and considers bilateral and multilateral steps to navigate the geopolitics of several policies and programs in Asia.
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