India's Energy Efficiency Surpasses Global Average: RBI

A study by an RBI research team found that India's energy efficiency improved by 1.9% between 2000 and 2023, outpacing the global average of 1.4%.

The report also highlighted that India surpassed other BRICS nations, which averaged 1.62%. However, it trailed developed markets such as the US and Germany, where energy efficiency grew by over 2% during the same period.

During 2012-22, India's energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 706 million tonnes. (Representational)

Between 2012 and 2022, India's energy-related CO2 emissions rose by 706 million tonnes, primarily driven by economic growth, with a smaller impact from changes in the country's fuel mix. Nevertheless, improvements in energy efficiency, structural shifts, and a lower emission intensity in electricity generation—supported by increased renewable energy use—helped mitigate emissions by nearly 450 million tonnes.

"Going ahead, the emission factor effect is expected to play a more prominent role as renewables increasingly replace fossil fuels and green hydrogen usage expands in industries," researchers from the RBI stated.

The report highlighted that while renewables have made a modest yet meaningful contribution to reducing emissions over the past decade, solar and wind accounted for 2.1% of total primary energy in 2022-23.

Despite progress in decoupling emissions from economic growth, the study emphasized that India must implement further reforms to meet its net-zero target.

India should strengthen its efforts to expand renewable energy adoption. With solar and wind power tariffs now lower than those of new coal power plants, earlier concerns regarding the high costs of renewables have been dispelled, according to the report published in the RBI's monthly bulletin.

The report analyzes the factors driving India's CO2 emissions growth from 2012 to 2022 using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition method.

It dissects total emissions into key contributing elements, including GDP growth, energy efficiency improvements, shifts in economic structure, changes in fuel composition, and the increasing share of renewables in electricity generation, which helps lower the carbon intensity of power production.

(This Article was originally published by NDTV)