Tuesday

04


May , 2021
Industry short stories
21:36 pm

B.E. Bureau


 

India has ranked 87th in global energy transition index 

 

India has been ranked at 87th position in the Energy Transition Index (ETI) among 115 countries. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released this report on April 21, 2021. On the basis of the current performance of the countries’ energy systems across various aspects like environmental sustainability, economic development and growth, energy security and access indicators this index is being tracked. The countries are scaled according to their readiness for transition to sustainable, secure, inclusive and affordable energy systems. It is considered as an important notion on the global climate change action.

Northern and Western European countries have been identified as top 10 nations in the ETI. Sweden stood at the first position, Norway and Denmark stood at second and third positions, consecutively. China and India collectively account for a third of global energy demand. These two countries have shown improvements and stood at 67 and 87 consecutively. But still, coal plays a substantial role in their energy mix. The index result shows positive direction and steady drive of the global energy transition and all the 115 countries have improved their aggregate score over the past decade.

The report has mentioned that India has targeted improvements through the subsidy reforms and by rapidly scaling the energy access. China’s improvement has been ensued by “reducing the energy intensity of the economy, strengthening the enabling environment through infrastructure and investment, and gains in decarbonising the energy mix through the expansion of renewable resources”.

 

Air pollution costs `7 lakh crore every year to Indian businesses – report states

 

Air pollution costs Indian businesses about `7 lakh crore ($95 billion) in each fiscal. It is around 3% of India’s total gross domestic product. The cost is equal to 50% of all tax collected annually or 150% of India’s healthcare budget.

A report published by Dalberg Advisors, Clean Air Fund and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), “India’s workers take 1.3 billion days off work annually because of the adverse effects of air pollution on their health, amounting to $6 billion in lost revenue.” The report additionally stated, “Air pollution has also been shown to have significant effects on workers’ cognitive and physical performance, lowering their on-the-job productivity and thereby decreasing business revenues by up to $24 billion.”

The report has revealed that India experienced 1.7 million premature deaths from air pollution in the year 2019 which is 18% of all deaths in India. During the same year, in economic terms the lost working years cost the Indian economy $44 billion.

The report further explained that lower air quality also reduces consumers’ willingness to venture out of their homes, leading to lower footfall and ultimately $22 billion less revenue for consumer-facing businesses that has impacted the national economy. Additionally, India’s IT sector is excessively affected as the sector lost $1.3 billion due to pollution induced productivity loss per year. If air pollution continues to increase at the present projected rates, this figure could approximately double by 2030 - the report cautioned. 

 

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