NITI Ayog member VK Saraswat says temperatures soaring past 50 degrees Celsius is alarming for India. “These are climate changes, and the writing is on the wall,” Saraswat said while elaborating that the global threshold for pollution, or parts per million, is 440, while the current levels are between 417 and 420 PPM, with 2.3 PPM being added every year globally. It is estimated that the 440 PPM level will be reached in 10 years. A 440 parts per million threshold caps the global rise in temperatures at 1.5–2 degrees Celsius.
“If you cross 440, then you go into the regime of 2 degrees, and beyond that, you know what kind of problems will happen. The threshold that has been given to us is 1.5–2 degrees. Since we have only 10 years left we can’t get into getting all our nuclear power plants and renewable energy meeting our energy needs,” the NITI member says.
The NITI Aayog has estimated India’s power requirement to more than double to 900 gigawatts by 2030 from the current 441 GW. Saraswat says while the country will not be short of power, power plants, along with cement, steel, refineries, aluminium among other big industries, need to quickly adopt technologies which can reduce the CO2 levels.
“The only possible method today is to integrate these with carbon capture and utilisation storage or CCUS. With the minimum time, we will be able to reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere. These are the technologies available today and we have experimented in India,” the NITI member told CNBC-TV18.
“Immediately, this is the only way. Other way is to close down all your thermal power plants, switch over all industrial sectors to nuclear power or renewable energy, or use hydrogen for the steel sector, which is not possible.”
Saraswat also explained that due to prohibitive costs, adopting hydrogen as an alternative fuel is some distance away. India has set a target to produce 5 million tonnes of hydrogen per annum but currently, it is nowhere. In fact, the first such plant being set up by Gail will take 3 years to be completed.
Saraswat says a kilo of hydrogen costs $5–$6, and if used by the steel sector at current rates, steel prices are likely to go up by 20%, making the industry uncompetitive. Hydrogen gas price needs to come down to $1-$2 and electrolyser costs need to fall from $600 per kilowatt to $150 dollars/kw for the industry to consider its commercial usage. “It’s a huge journey,” a NITI member says.
