India up at 74th place on WEF’s global energy transition index

India has moved up two positions to rank 74th on a worldwide ‘Energy Transition Index’ with enhancements on all key parameters of financial progress, vitality safety and environmental sustainability, the World Economic Forum (WEF) mentioned on Wednesday.

Releasing the annual rankings, the Geneva-based worldwide organisation for public-private cooperation mentioned Covid-19 will compromise the transition to wash vitality with out an pressing stakeholder motion as unprecedented disruptions because of the pandemic threaten this transition.

In its report, the WEF mentioned its examine measuring readiness for clear vitality transition in 115 economies confirmed that 94 have made progress since 2015, however environmental sustainability continues to lag.

Sweden has topped the Energy Transition Index (ETI) for the third consecutive 12 months and is adopted by Switzerland and Finland within the high three.

Surprisingly, France (ranked eighth) and the UK (seventh) are the one G20 international locations within the high ten.

The WEF mentioned the “emerging centres of demand” resembling India (74th) and China (78th) have made constant efforts to enhance the enabling surroundings, which refers to political commitments, client engagement and funding, innovation and infrastructure, amongst others.

In China’s case, issues of air air pollution have resulted in insurance policies to regulate emissions, electrify automobiles, and develop the world’s largest capability for photo voltaic photovoltaic (PV) and onshore wind energy crops.

For India, positive factors have come from a government-mandated renewable vitality growth programme, now prolonged to 275 GW by 2027. India has additionally made vital strides in vitality effectivity by way of bulk procurement of LED bulbs, good meters, and packages for labelling of home equipment. Similar measures are being experimented to drive down the prices of electrical automobiles, the WEF mentioned.

India is among the few international locations on the planet to have made constant year-on-year progress since 2015.

India’s enhancements have come throughout all three dimensions of the vitality triangle — financial growth and progress, vitality entry and safety, and environmental sustainability.

It signifies a powerful positive trajectory, pushed by sturdy political dedication and an enabling coverage surroundings.

The WEF mentioned the coronavirus pandemic dangers cancelling out current progress in transitioning to wash vitality, with unprecedented falls in demand, value volatility and strain to shortly mitigate socioeconomic prices putting the near-term trajectory of the transition doubtful.

Policies, roadmaps and governance frameworks for vitality transition at nationwide, regional and international ranges have to be extra sturdy and resilient towards exterior shocks, in response to the newest version of WEF’s Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2020 report.

Covid-19 has compelled corporations throughout industries to adapt to operational disruption, modifications in demand and new methods of working, and governments have launched financial restoration packages to assist mitigate these results. If applied with long-term methods in thoughts, they may additionally speed up the transition to wash vitality, by serving to international locations scale their efforts in direction of sustainable and inclusive vitality programs.

“The coronavirus pandemic offers an opportunity to consider unorthodox intervention in the energy markets and global collaboration to support a recovery that accelerates the energy transition once the acute crisis subsides,” mentioned Roberto Bocca, Head of Energy and Materials, WEF.

The index benchmarks 115 economies on the present efficiency of their vitality programs throughout financial growth and progress, environmental sustainability, and vitality safety and entry indicators- and their readiness for transition to safe, sustainable, inexpensive, and inclusive vitality programs.

The outcomes for 2020 present that 75 per cent of nations have improved their environmental sustainability. This progress is a results of multifaceted, incremental approaches, together with pricing carbon, retiring coal crops forward of schedule and redesigning electrical energy markets to combine renewable vitality sources.

However, this hard-won progress highlights the constraints of relying solely on incremental positive factors from current insurance policies and applied sciences to finish the transition to wash vitality. The best total progress is noticed amongst rising economies, with the typical ETI rating for international locations within the high 10 per cent remaining fixed since 2015, signalling an pressing want for breakthrough options – one threatened by COVID-19.

The report mentioned the scores for the US (32th), Canada (28th), Brazil (47th) and Australia (36th) had been both stagnant or declining.

In the US, the headwinds have been principally associated to coverage surroundings, whereas for Canada and Australia, the challenges lie in balancing vitality transition with financial progress given the function of the vitality sector of their financial system.

The indisputable fact that solely 11 out of 115 international locations have made regular enhancements in ETI scores since 2015 exhibits the complexity of vitality transition. Argentina, China, India and Italy are among the many main international locations with constant annual enhancements. Others, resembling Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kenya, and Oman have additionally made vital positive factors over time.

On the opposite hand, scores for Canada, Chile, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey have declined since 2015.

The US ranks outdoors the highest 25 per cent for the primary time, primarily because of the unsure regulatory outlook for vitality transition.