Niti Post
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December 1, 2022
The severe repercussions of global warming are being felt in India also. Continuous increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by all kinds of human activities, have serious consequences for various ecosystems and putting sustainable development into jeopardy. ‘Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) Policy Framework’ is an effort to restore the ecosystem and ensure sustainable development and growth in the country. It promises a lot especially for the production of clean products and energy, which will lead us to an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
PM’s net-zero pledge by 2070
CCUS has an important and critical role to play in the process to accomplish net-zero by 2070, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pledged at COP26. Further, India is prioritizing CCUS as a potential solution to decarbonise sectors like thermal power plant, iron and steel and cement industries among others. CCUS aims to enable the production of clean products while utilizing India’s rich endowments of coal, reducing imports and thus leading to what we call self-dependency in Indian economy or Atmanirbhar Bharat.
India’s CO2 emission one-fourth of China
It is to be noted that India’s per capita CO2 emissions are about 1.9 tonnes per annum, which is less than 40% of the global average and also about one-fourth of that of China, however for a sustainable development and solutions, we need to decarbonise sectors that contribute to 70% of emission.
Transition from blue to green hydrogen
CCUS is also aimed to support the transition from blue hydrogen to green hydrogen by accelerating the demand growth and creating technologies and infrastructure for production, storage and transportation of hydrogen. The fascinating aspect of this process is that the conversion of CO2 into usable chemicals and products, is sure to spur the economic growth. It will also help in achieving some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) like green aggregates, green ammonia and methanol and ultimately green energy.
Titled ‘Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage Policy Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India’, a report was released yesterday, which explores the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage as an emission reduction strategy to achieve deep decarbonization from the hard-to-abate sectors. The report outlines broad level policy interventions needed across various sectors for its application.
45% reduction in emission intensity by 2030
India has updated its NDC targets for achieving 50% of its total installed capacity from non-fossil-based energy sources. Under new NDC targets, 45% reduction in emission intensity by 2030, has been set. In such a situation, taking steps towards achieving Net Zero by 2070, the role of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) become important as reduction strategy to achieve decarbonization from the hard-to abate sectors.
Decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sector
Suman Bery, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, on this occasion, said that CCUS can enable the production of clean products while still utilizing our rich endowments of coal, reducing imports and thus leading to an Atmanirbhar Indian economy. Implementation of CCUS technology will certainly be an important step to decarbonise the hard-to-abate sector.
Significant employment generation
CCUS projects is also going to lead to a significant employment generation. It estimates that about 750 mtpa of carbon capture by 2050 can create employment opportunities of about 8-10 million on full time equivalent (FTE) basis in a phased manner. NITI Aayog says, India’s dependency on the fossil-based Energy Resources is likely to continue in future, hence CCUS policy in Indian Context is needed.
CCUS provides a wide variety of opportunities
The report indicates that CCUS can provide a wide variety of opportunities to convert the captured CO2 to different value-added products like green urea, food and beverage form application, building materials like concrete and aggregates, chemicals like methanol and ethanol, polymers including bio-plastics and enhanced oil recovery with wide market opportunities in India, thus contributing substantially to a circular economy.
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