The interim budget features hits and misses on climate pathways

Among these, the major winners seem to be grid-connected solar power, with a near doubling of budget allocation, rooftop solar panels for 100 million houses, viability gap funding for 1 gigawatt (GW) of offshore wind power, coal gasification and liquefaction of 100 tonnes capacity, and a sixfold increase in outlay for the national Green Hydrogen Mission..

However, it is also critically important to be cognizant of the potential pitfalls of each low-carbon initiative, so as to win with every experiment in our quest to transform energy-usage towards Indias 2070 net-zero goal..

The Indian offshore wind programme is small in comparison, and we do have the advantage of domestic manufacturing capacity, but we need to keep a keen eye on regulatory frameworks, incentive structures and the competitiveness of this option for its full potential to be exploited..

Undoubtedly, coal gasification (CG) may be a more efficient option to exploit the vast coal resources that India has, but we do need to bear in mind that India has limited underground coal production capacities, and that, while CG may have environmental advantages, it will contribute little or negatively to our carbon goals..

The above does not take into account the logistics that would need to be put in place to ensure a market for coal gas or the longer-term risk of stranded assets as India ramps up facilities to meet its carbon commitments..

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