The Climate Parliament has made a significant contribution to strengthening India's renewable energy targets.  This is yet another example of what a small group of committed legislators can achieve.

Three years ago the Council on Climate Change, an advisory body to the Government of India, suggested that the country should try to ensure that, in addition to large-scale hydroelectric power, 15 percent of its electricity supply should come from solar, wind, biomass and other renewable energy technologies by 2020.  It seemed, however, that this advice had fallen on deaf ears.  In October 2010 the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy issued a document outlining "Progress, Vision and Strategy" which foresaw just 6.4 percent of electricity supply coming from renewables by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan in 2022.

More than a year ago, the Climate Parliament group in the Indian Parliament, made up of some 25 influential MPs from all major parties, set to work to raise the Government's level of ambition for the next Five Year Plan, which begins in 2012.  Their goal: to persuade the Government to adopt the 15 percent target, and to increase public funding for renewables.  Now, in a key policy paper, the Government has accepted that the target is both feasible and desirable.  Meanwhile, two key Parliamentary Committees have taken initiatives to promote a reallocation of funds towards renewables.  Here is a short summary of the actions the MPs have taken, and the impressive results achieved:

August 2010  Shri Vijay Inder Singla MP and Dr Sanjay Jaiswal MP wrote to the Minister of New and Renewable Energy, while our group’s coordinator Shri Milind Deora MP, now a Minister himself, wrote to the influential Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (the Chairman being the Prime Minister) to urge them to support the 15 percent target.  Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy MP, Chair of the official Parliamentary Forum on Climate Change, spoke on behalf of the target in parliamentary debate.  And in a Short Duration Discussion in the Lok Sabha, members of the Climate Parliament group urged the government to accept the 15 percent target as part of the effort to bring electricity to off-grid villages.

September 2010  Dr Sanjay Jaiswal MP, Dr. Jhansi Lakshmi Botcha MP and Shri Dhiraj Prasad Sahu MP wrote a series of letters to the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi, the Minister of New and Renewable Energy, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and the Minister of Power.  As well as reiterating the importance of the 15 percent goal, they urged greater investment in village mini grids, and a smart supergrid for India to connect the whole country to the areas with most abundant renewable resources.

October 2010  Shri Prakash Javadekar MP, one of the senior spokespeople of the opposition BJP, further demonstrated the high-level cross-party support for the target in a letter to the Minister of New and Renewable Energy.  In the same month, Climate Parliament members launched an initiative in the powerful Estimates Committee, which has oversight of the national budget.  The Committee held a hearing on power generation which, once the Committee’s observations are presented to the full Lok Sabha, may well lead to increased budgetary support for renewables in off-grid villages.

March 2011  Eleven MPs from different political parties sent a written representation to the Prime Minister.  They urged him to intervene to increase the Government's renewable energy target to 15 percent.  They also encouraged him to launch a review of India's renewable potential, suggesting that previous government estimates had been too low.  Meanwhile, both Shri Jayant Chaudhary MP and Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal MP made interventions in a debate on Matters of Urgent Public Importance to urge stronger support for solar power.  And as time went on, other organisations added their voices to the call for 15 percent renewables.

August 2011  On 21 August, these efforts bore fruit.  In the crucial "Approach Paper to the 12th Five Year Plan", unveiled at a meeting of the Planning Commission chaired by the Prime Minister, the Government stated for the first time that a target of 15% renewables in the national electricity supply could be achieved.  The Government also expressed its support for a fresh assessment of India's renewable energy potential.  In the same month, the Indian Parliament's Standing Committee on Energy issued a report recommending a substantial increase in the budget for promotion of renewable energy, including increased support for research and development on solar photovoltaic and other technologies.  Committee members Vijay Inder Singla MP, MB Rajesh MP, and Prabodh Panda MP had been pressing for this for many months.

In the course of this work, the Climate Parliament has contributed to three other important outcomes:
•    India-US joint research programme.  In August 2010, Milind Deora MP wrote on behalf of our group to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, urging that during President Obama's upcoming visit to India, the two countries should launch a joint research programme on clean energy, focusing particularly on solar power.  On President Obama's state visit to India, he and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed just such an agreement, with very similar content to that proposed by us.  Each government committed US$5 million in seed money for the programme.
•    Increased target for biomass energy.  The Climate Parliament mobilised strong cross-party support for a major increase in the target for biomass energy from sources such as farm waste and forest weeds.  In particular, the MPs focused on the vast bamboo potential of the country, especially in the Northeast region.  In March 2011, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced that it was exploring the possibility of generating 10,000 megawatts from biomass.
•    Payment Security Scheme for solar energy.  In a workshop organised by the Climate Parliament in January 2011 for MPs, renewable industries and NGOs, one of the key recommendations to emerge was the establishment of a risk guarantee scheme to compensate renewable energy producers in case of non-payment by utilities.  This would do much to help mobilise funds from financial institutions.  MPs raised the matter repeatedly through letters to Government Ministers and in Parliamentary debate, calling for the necessary funds to be included in the budget.  In June 2011, the Government of India approved a budgetary allocation for a Payment Security Scheme to ensure financing of projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.

When India decides to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, it matters not only for the nation but for the world.  A large part of the global increase in energy demand in the coming years is set to come from China and India.  An increased commitment by India is a key step in expanding the global renewable energy industry.  The Climate Parliament will continue to work to ensure that this target is formally adopted, fully implemented, and if possible exceeded.

The Climate Parliament wishes to thank the British High Commission in New Delhi, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Foundation for the Third Millennium as well as individual philanthropists who are kindly supporting our work in India.

For more information, contact info@climateparl.net.