The Study on `Mitigating Climate Change : The Indian Perspective’  indicates that about 40,000 million tonnes of solid wastes and 5000 million cubic metre of liquid waste is generated every year in the urban areas of the country which can be suitably recycled for power generation.

According to estimates made in the Study, about 1500 megawatt of power could be generated from urban and municipal wastes by setting up waste energy projects and additional 1000 megawatt of industrial wastes in the country by 2010.

The cost factor involved could be within the range of around Rs.200 crore, resources for which could be generated through municipalities and local governments with subsidy element coming towards such projects from state government concern.

Releasing the Study, ASSOCHAM President, Mr. Sajjan Jindal said that India’s energy policy also included nuclear energy as one of the promising areas to increase the power generation capacity to 20,000 MW (e) by the year 2020, based on the nuclear projects under construction and upgradation work.

Further elaborating on it, Mr. Jindal said that India has potential to reduce its projected emissions over next 30 years by nearly one-quarter for less than $25 per ton of carbon equivalent, with a substantial portion available at a very low cost.

Several research studies on Indian Power sector reveal the potential for saving of around 20,000 MW through various energy efficiency and demand side management measures, these include renovation & modernization of old power plants, adoption of cleaner coal technologies, HVDC transmission and distribution with HVDS, energy efficient distribution transformers, installation of capacitor banks etc. In addition, installation of super critical boilers also gaining momentum in the recent days.

All the energy efficiency and demand side measures in the power sector could qualify to gain the carbon credits through CDM cycle. Initiatives by several generating and transmission companies recently towards claiming carbon credits are a positive sign for the sector”

The Study has also sought “Shift fossil fuels (such as coal, diesel, and petroleum) to natural gas and renewables: With the abundant available of renewable sources like biomass across the country, India has vast potential to replace the current usage of fossil fuels in various industrial/commercial applications. This would reduce the dependence of fossil fuels in the industrial systems but also reduces the GHG emissions. This is also expected to increase the economic value of the biomass fuels which in turn likely to improve the social and economic conditions of the rural areas.

It also says that considering the gap between demand and supply in the power sector and investments required to bridge this gap, the Ministry of Power has been looking for more cost effective options such as Renovation and Modernization (R&M) of existing power plants, which are not as capital intensive as new capacity addition and which could be implemented in a comparatively shorter time frame.  In view of the same, MoP has identified 170 thermal units which installed capacity of 11,000 MW and 35 hydroelectric units with installed capacity of 3000 MW that need R&M and life extension.

With the continuous exploration of gas reserves across all the potential locations in the country, India is poised to grow in this field and develop more gas based power plants and find its usage more in various industrial applications. Government of India’s steps towards encouragement of private participation in this sector and growing potential for gas based power plants in India would definitely play a key role in future to reduce the GHG emissions in power and industrial sector”.

The Study says that it is also essential for world leaders from both developed and developing countries realize the importance of climate change and act as catalyst in promoting the policies that target at reduction of GHG emissions. India, though with less per capital GHG emissions compared to the developed world should play an active role in formulating the long term policies to mitigate affects of climate change without hampering the economic growth in the region. It is also equally important to formulate policies that promote usage of cleaner energy technologies and other options to mitigate the climate change effects.