Announcement made by India to double investment in Clean Energy Research in next five years

India on 2 June 2016 announced its plan to double the investment in Clean Energy Research in next five years. At present, India is investing 72 million US dollars in Clean Energy Research and it seeks to double it to 145 million dollars.

This announcement was made by the Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan who led the Indian delegation at the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7) and the inaugural Mission Innovation (MI) Meet.

The CEM7 and MI meet was held at San Francisco, the US from 1 and 2 June 2016.

The announcement was made along with other MI partner countries who also released plans to double the clean energy research and development funding over the next five years.

New joint collaborations with MI Countries
With the UK, India announced to expand India’s collaboration by setting up a Joint Virtual Clean Energy Centre to address the challenges in solar energy.
With the US, Minister announced to launch a new Research Track on Smart Energy Grids and Energy Storage under the Indo-US Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Research (PACE-R).

Global Cooling Challenge launched
It was launched by Dr. Harsh Vardhan at CEM7. The challenge will accelerate the introduction of super-efficient air conditioners which can reduce the energy demand from 60 GW of energy to 40 GW, a saving of over 30%.
In terms of cost saving, it will lead to saving of 2.8 billion dollars in consumer energy bills and and GHG reductions of 20 million tons of CO2 equivalent.

Mission Innovation (MI)
Mission Innovation (MI) was launched on 30 November 2015 by 20 participating countries, including India, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) in Paris-Le Bourget, France.
Mission seeks to accelerate public and private global clean energy innovation ushering in an era of Clean Energy Revolution.
India is a Founding Member of the Steering Committee of the Mission Innovation and also a Member of the two sub-groups: Joint Research and Capacity Building and Private Sector Engagement.
Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technology is coordinating the national efforts towards the Mission.

India’s achievements in the field of Clean Energy
India has successfully implemented the world’s largest LED lighting programme. This programme has seen India lead the way by driving 12% of global LED demand at present, up from 0.1% a couple of years ago.