Prime Minister’s statement at the Clean Energy Ministerial disappointing- Greenpeace

“When the entire country is looking up to the Prime Minister for a clear pathway for solving the current energy crisis, his speech can best be described as disappointing.  His statement today at the Clean Energy Ministerial shows no clear ambition and is a repetition of old promises on clean energy development.”

Equity is not only an inter-country issue but intra-country as well. There is rising energy injustice under his government between rural and urban; and rich and poor. Despite acknowledging that renewable technologies like solar are best suited to bridge the energy access gap, he and his government has done little in implementing it on ground. Renewables like solar and biomass have not been made preferred option in the rural electrification programmes like Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).

“It is good to see that the government is targeting to double the nation's renewable energy capacity in the next five years. However, this vision lacks any clear policy pathway to achieve that. The Prime Minister is spelling out targets in his speech but the policy and regulatory mechanisms to realise that are missing, which happens to be the biggest bottleneck.”

“It is encouraging that the Prime Minister talks about including carbon emissions in costing of power generation from conventional sources. We hope that in near future, his government will bring a mechanism where all social, environmental and health cost for both conventional and non-conventional forms of energy production will be internalised. Only then we will be able to say explicitly whether renewable energy is expensive or not,” added Pratap.

For more details contact:

Abhishek Pratap, Senior Campaigner Greenpeace, +91-9845610749, g

Shashwat Raj, Senior Media Officer, Greenpeace, +91-9686861974,