New Episode of Resources Radio: “Taming the Sun in India’s Power Sector, with Varun Sivaram”
WASHINGTON, DC—Resources for the Future (RFF) today released a new installment of Resources Radio: “Taming the Sun in India’s Power Sector, with Varun Sivaram.”
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Varun Sivaram, a visiting senior fellow at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. Drawing from his work at one of India’s largest renewable energy companies, Sivaram discusses the country’s remarkable progress toward making solar power affordable and widespread. However, as demand for electricity is expected to rise in the coming years, Sivaram cautions that fossil fuel consumption could increase, too, unless India makes strategic investments in clean energy. India's energy transition consequently has massive implications—not just for its growing population, but for global efforts to address climate change, as well.
Notable quotes from the podcast:
- Without policy shifts, India could become the world’s biggest emitter: “I think India's emissions over the next 30 years could come close to the level of China's. I think India could be the number-one emitter in the world sometime in this century. And, unless we accelerate that clean energy transition, India is a ticking climate bomb.” (3:40)
- Despite progress, India remains reliant on coal: “Coal use is forecast to rise sharply to fuel industrial processes. And in the power sector, even if India meets this wildly ambitious target of 450 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030, it's possible that coal generation will actually stay flat or increase a little bit … Even in the absolute best-case scenario, I still expect coal to produce at least a plurality share of any source of India's power by 2030. Nevertheless, this is the critical decade. This is the decade where India's energy transition is made or broken.” (20:02)
- Ensuring a just transition for fossil fuel communities: “As India has a clean energy transition, it needs to think first and foremost about an economic transition. The coal power sector and the coal sector are important employers, and whole states depend on coal for their economies. I saw the largest coal mine in Asia, and I saw how these people were literally getting killed by the emissions from the coal plants and the mines that they live next to. And yet, sentiment about the coal plants and mines was generally positive. This was the lifeblood of the economy.” (29:08)
Resources Radio is a weekly podcast series exploring timely environmental, energy, and natural resources topics. Episodes can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Soundcloud, Spotify, and Stitcher.
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