The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has recently approved £1.17 billion dollars financing to accelerate India’s development of low-carbon energy. The World Bank stated that the funding will assist India in promoting low-carbon energy through boosting renewable energy, creating green hydrogen, and encouraging climate finance for low-carbon energy developments.
“India is one of the fastest-growing large economies in the world. While the country’s energy consumption per capita is only one-third of the global average, India’s energy demand is expected to grow rapidly as the economy expands. This calls for a phasing down of fossil-based energy sources in line with India’s goal of achieving net-zero by 2070,” said the World Bank statement.
Future energy consumption and emissions are mostly driven by the industrial sector, and green hydrogen can be instrumental in first decarbonizing the challenging industrial sectors, such as fertiliser and refinery industries, and then the heavy industries, like the iron and steel industry.
“India has achieved impressive progress in renewable energy installed capacity and a decline in costs. Scaling up the production of renewable energy will accelerate the transition to low-carbon electricity and support the emergence and expansion of the green hydrogen sector,” said the statement.
“The programme will support the successful implementation of the National Green Hydrogen Mission that aims to stimulate $100 billion in private sector investment by 2030,” said Auguste Tano Kouame, World Bank country director for India.