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UN chief Antonio Guterres on Friday renewed his name on India and different G20 nations to invest in a clean and sustainable transition as they recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, expressing deep concern over the continued assist for polluting fossil fuels by nations internationally.
UN Secretary-General Guterres, nearly delivering the 19th Darbari Seth Memorial Lecture by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), stated that clean power and shutting the power entry hole are good enterprise.
“They are the ticket to growth and prosperity. Yet, here in India, subsidies for fossil fuels are still some seven times more than subsidies for clean energy,” he stated.
Coal subsidies in 2019-20 amounted to USD 2.06 billion, with general subsidies to fossil fuels at USD 11 billion, he stated.
Guterres praised India for elevating the proportion of renewable power in its complete consumption to 24 per cent from 17 per cent regardless of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He stated that coal-fired energy use has declined by 10 per cent to 66 per cent from 76 per cent.
The UN chief stated that investments in renewable power generate triple the variety of jobs created by investments in fossil fuels.
“With the Covid-19 pandemic threatening to push many people back into poverty, such job creation is an opportunity that can’t be missed,” Guterres stated.
Apart from problems with job creation and considerations about air pollution and local weather change, coal energy vegetation are probably to grow to be “stranded assets,” he stated.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar presided over the occasion and delivered the Presidential Address.
The UN chief described as “deeply troubling” the continued assist for fossil fuels in so many locations around the globe.
“I have asked all G20 countries, including India, to invest in a clean, green transition as they recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. This means ending fossil fuel subsidies, placing a price on carbon pollution and committing to no new coal after 2020,” Guterres stated.
The Secretary-General elaborated that in India, 50 per cent of coal shall be uncompetitive in 2022, reaching 85 per cent by 2025.
“This is why the world’s largest investors are increasingly abandoning coal. They see the writing on the wall. It spells stranded assets and makes no commercial sense. The coal business is going up in smoke,” he stated.
Guterres stated that he’s “increasingly concerned” concerning the a number of “negative trends” and identified that G20 restoration packages present that twice as a lot restoration cash has been spent on fossil fuels as clean power.
“In some cases, we are seeing countries doubling down on domestic coal and opening up coal auctions. This strategy will only lead to further economic contraction and damaging health consequences.
“We have never had more evidence that pollution from fossil fuels and coal emissions severely damages human health and leads to much higher healthcare system costs,” Guterres stated.
India in June launched the public sale course of for coal blocks for business mining. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the public sale course of for 41 coal blocks for business mining, a transfer that opened India’s coal sector for personal gamers, and had termed it a serious step in the route of India reaching self-reliance.
Presently, regardless of being the world’s fourth largest producer, India is the second largest importer of the dry-fuel, Modi had stated.
“Allowing private sector in commercial coal mining is unlocking resources of a nation with the world’s fourth-largest reserves,” he had identified.
Modi had stated that the launch of the public sale course of not solely marked the start of unlocking of the nation’s coal sector from the lockdown of a long time, however aimed toward making India the most important exporter of coal.
Guterres lauded the developed economies and plenty of growing nations for main by instance by shifting to inexperienced options to meet their power calls for amid the pandemic.
He cited the instance of South Korea, the United Kingdom and Germany, as effectively as the European Union for rushing up decarbonisation of their economies in their home stimulus and funding plans in response to Covid-19.
He famous that these nations are shifting from unsustainable fossil fuels to clean and environment friendly renewables, and investing in power storage options, such as inexperienced hydrogen.
Nigeria too has not too long ago reformed its fossil gas subsidy framework, Guterres stated.
With outside air air pollution, largely pushed by high-emitting power and transport sources, main to damaging pulmonary ailments – bronchial asthma, pneumonia and lung most cancers, Guterres stated researchers in the United States have concluded that individuals dwelling in areas with excessive ranges of air air pollution are extra probably to die from Covid-19.
“If fossil fuel emissions were eliminated, overall life expectancy could rise by more than 20 months, avoiding 5.5 million deaths per year worldwide. Investing in fossil fuels means more deaths and illness and rising healthcare costs. It is, simply put, a human disaster and bad economics,” he stated.
The price of renewables has fallen a lot that it’s already cheaper to construct new renewable power capability than to proceed working 39 per cent of the world’s current coal capability, Guterres stated, including that this share of uncompetitive coal vegetation will quickly improve to 60 per cent in 2022. PTI YAS CPS AKJ CPS
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