Vibha Dhawan, Director General of TERI debates with EU President von der Leyen

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in collaboration with the European Union (EU) is organising an in-person session ‘Youth for a Greener Future’ where HE Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, will interact with the youth on the existential challenge of climate change and the need to work together for a green, digital and resilient future. #eudebates the unique initiative aiming to promote debate, dialogue, knowledge, participation and communication among citizens. #INDIA #ClimateChange #ClimateAction #EnvironmentEducation #TERI Green Hydrogen cost of $1 per Kg is possible in India: Vibha Dhawan, DG, TER Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is known the world over for research in the field of Energy and Environment. In a candid interview with ETEnergyworld, the institute’s Director General Vibha Dhawan talks about some of the most crucial issues in the energy sector currently – impact of Russia-Ukraine war on energy transition, pace of renewable energy capacity creation in India, the country’s “coal phase-down” strategy, the perennial issue of air pollution and the way ahead for the Hydrogen economy. She says, first and foremost, India needs to step up private sector investment in clean energy R&D. Edited excerpts.. Do you think India’s energy transition is progressing well? We are desiring this transition because we cannot afford the current way of generating and utilizing energy. The energy transition landscape globally is highly interdependent and is impacted by various political factors. A good example is the current situation emerging from the Russia-Ukraine war. Data shows around 90 per cent of the natural gas requirement of EU is met through imports and 45 per cent of this natural gas imported into EU comes from Russia. The Russia-Ukraine war may generate a new framework in the global energy market where too much self-reliance would be prioritized, if not self-sufficiency. The prevailing situation is going to adversely impact the net zero target achievements, especially for the European countries. EU officials have admitted that they may have to be flexible with some decarbonisation package. Germany, along with some Eastern European member states, is likely to continue using coal longer than anticipated to fill this gap which has arisen because of the war. Even for other states the high price rise seen in oil and its cascading impact on other product prices may derail the energy transition process. Many international oil companies have pulled their investments from Rosneft. The point that needs to be highlighted is that low carbon energy transition is still not a priority issue or area and this issue is rather derailed due to other high political factors. The chief defining attributes of the low carbon energy transition is the availability of technical knowledge, financial resources and lower cost of production. India is a very cost sensitive market. So, cost of production has the potential to determine the growth of low carbon energy sector. Talking about energy security, a statement by the Indian environment minister on “phasing out versus phasing down” of coal became an issue during COP26. India has coal as the only fossil fuel available, and therefore we should be permitted to use coal. Look at the scales at which US and China are using coal even today. So, why not us? I am not saying that we should not move towards cleaner options. We should definitely do that, and therefore “phase down” is a better approach. To begin with, for a few years, till all other technologies become tested and acclimatized to our environment, we will have to continue using coal to some extent.