By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, DEC 02, 2023: UNION Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy, R.K. Singh, yesterday inaugurated a two-day National Conference on "Energy Transition in India - Road Travelled and Opportunities Ahead" in Gandhinagar.   Kanubhai Desai, Minister of Energy Petrochemicals and Finance, Government of Gujarat was also present along with other dignitaries on the occasion. Organized as a part of the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024, the event is being attended by more than 250 Indian and foreign representatives of power and renewable energy sector. The two-day conference will focus on scaling up renewable energy, generation and consumption by considering challenges related to grid integration, financing tools and developing supporting infrastructure.

The Union Minister for Power in his address said the main objective of this conference is to move forward with an ambitious vision of promoting clean energy and facilitating the energy transition. He said that India is committed to reducing the emission intensity of its GDP by 45 percent by 2030 compare to 2005 level. Later, while talking to media persons on the sidelines of the conference, R.K. Singh said that the developed countries should focus on reducing carbon emissions rather than looking in to how carbon emissions are produced. 80 percent of the carbon emission burden lies with developed countries, which account only a one- third of the world's population, he said. The Union Minister further said India aims to add capacity so as to reach 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based capacity by 2030 and increase the share of renewable energy based capacity to at least 50 percent in terms of installed capacity.

Speaking on the occasion, Kanubhai Desai, Minister of Finance and Energy of Gujarat government said that due to the vision and long-term planning of the Prime Minister and the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi, Gujarat has emerged as the leading state in the country in the field of renewable energy. A separate department for Climate Change was set up in Gujarat for the first time in the country when Modi was the CM, enabling measures to achieve sustainability, energy transition and net-zero goals, he said. Gujarat is also the first state in the country to issue policies on renewable energy providing incentives for the development of renewable energy.He said that Gujarat today ranked first in the country in terms of installed wind power capacity, accounting for 25 percent of the country's total installed wind power capacity. In addition, Gujarat has the highest installed rooftop solar capacity, accounting for 26 percent of India's total rooftop solar capacity.