As per the COP26 commitments of the Central Government, the Ministry of Steel has directed the stakeholders to develop a time bound action plan to reduce the carbon emissions in the steel industry.
According to the ministry, globally the iron and steel industry accounts for about 8% of the total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on an annual basis, while India contributes 12% to the total CO2 emissions.
Therefore, the Indian steel industry needs to reduce its emissions substantially to meet the commitments made in the COP26 Climate Change Convention.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India will meet the target of net zero emissions by 2070 at the COP26 global climate summit in November 2021.
In a meeting held recently, Union Steel Minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh urged the stakeholders to develop a time bound action plan and make concerted efforts to reduce emissions from the steel industry in line with the commitments made by the Central Government in COP26. .
The current scenario, the way forward for promoting the transition to green steel, various strategies and technologies that can be adopted by the steel industry to produce green steel, and technology readiness levels, were discussed in the meeting.
The meeting also discussed the use of green hydrogen in iron production and the use of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies to reduce emissions.
The ministry said that there are R&D project proposals in joint collaborative mode from reputed academic institutions, research laboratories and steel companies for development of new alternative processes and technologies to address the problems faced by the sector and this R&D plan It is also providing financial assistance under for the financial year 2022-23″.
Meanwhile, India has achieved the 2022 target for renewable energy. In less than 8 years, solar capacity has grown from about 2.6 GW to over 46 GW. This has contributed to taking India to the fourth position globally for overall installed renewable energy capacity.
In this year’s budget, only about USD 2.5 billion has been announced for high-efficiency solar module manufacturing. Solar stoves also have a huge market, which is essential for India’s clean-cooking movement.
Indian start-ups have been instrumental in driving the country’s solar ambitions. The architects and builders are also urged to work on the concept of solar trees in the construction of houses which can meet 10-20 per cent of the power requirement of the house.
Efforts have also been made to make solar energy more accessible. Solar power tariffs have been reduced by over 75 percent using the plug and play model, and a record low solar charge of less than 3 cents per unit has been achieved.
“Along with energy generation, energy storage and energy conservation are also important for sustainability; and we need to work together to find solutions to these issues,” said Ambassador TS Tirumurti, Indian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in a conversation with Olof. Co-hosting the virtual event, stressed Skog, Ambassador, Head of the EU Delegation to the United Nations.
The ambassador said that the International Solar Alliance was conceived as a joint effort of India and France and in December last year, a resolution granting observer status to the International Solar Alliance was passed at the United Nations.
He said that at COP26 in Glasgow, the Prime Ministers of India and the United Kingdom launched the International Grid Initiative – One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG), the first international network of global interconnected solar power grids.