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Report highlighted that India is shifting its focus from an unsustainable dependence on fossil fuel subsidies to fostering clean energy.
Initiatives Facilitating Shift from Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy
- Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform: “Remove, target, and shift" approach has been adopted.
- This approach helped in reducing subsidies in the oil and gas sector by 85%, from a peak of $25 billion in 2013 to $3.5 billion by 2023.
- India gradually phased out the subsidy on petrol and diesel (from 2010 to 2014).
- Approach helped in creating fiscal space for government support to renewable energy initiatives, critical electricity infrastructure, etc.
- Role of Taxation: From 2010 to 2017, the Government implemented a cess on coal production and imports.
- About 30% of the collections from this cess were allocated to a national clean energy and environment fund.
- Tax revenues were further boosted by rising excise duties on petrol and diesel (2014 to 2017).
- This helped the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in funding initiatives such as the Green Energy Corridor scheme.
- Major Government Schemes and Programmes: E.g. National Green Hydrogen Mission, PM-KUSUM scheme, etc.
About Asian Development Bank (ADB) (1966)
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