Committee on energy efficiency, low carbon technologies to be set up: Power Minister

Union Power Minister RK Singh on Thursday said a committee will be set up having members from all relevant ministries for implementation of the roadmap on energy efficiency and low carbon technologies.

According to the power ministry, Singh chaired a high-level meeting to review the progress of various energy efficiency programmes and the preparedness for Climate Change Actions in the country through video conferencing on Thursday.

The purpose of this high-level meeting was to discuss activities in the field of energy efficiency across all the sectors of the economy with the objective of reducing CO2 emissions.

"A Committee/Group to be set up having members from all relevant Ministries for implementation of the Roadmap on Energy Efficiency and low carbon technologies," he said.

The minister said a concerted push for renewables is already underway and a detailed action plan will be developed to identify potential areas.

Singh directed to keep the focus on sectors with the highest emissions intensity such as Transport, MSMEs and Power plants.

He also discussed the activities defined under the Mission document - ROSHANEE - which has been developed for implementing a series of Energy Conservation schemes across the country.

He advised the ministries to take appropriate measures on the demand side initiatives to ensure that the wastage of energy is minimised and said the deployment of low carbon technologies needs to be taken up on a massive scale, especially in the MSMEs, where it is highly essential.

He instructed all the departments that Electric Mobility also should be more aggressively pushed.

The Union Minister stressed that for better implementation of all energy efficiency schemes, the institutional mechanism in Bureau of Energy Efficiency, CPSU under Ministry of Power would be strengthened.

The High-Level meeting had senior officials from the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Department of Expenditure, Department of Heavy Industry, NITI Aayog, CEA, BEE, NTPC, PFC, REC, EESL, IREDA and SECI.

Alok Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Power highlighted that the cooling sector, cold storage and cooking are key areas to focus on for successfully achieving our targets for CO2 emission reduction.

He also discussed possibilities of exploring the shift of goods movement from Road Transport to Railways.

"Bureau of Energy Efficiency has developed two programs namely ROSHANEE and UNNATEE laying down the sector-wise action plan for the period 2021-2030," it added.

Mission ROSHANEE envisages various activities in the field of energy efficiency across all the sectors of the economy with the objective of reducing CO2 emissions by more than 550 million tonnes in the country by 2030 whereas UNNATEE is a working document, having short term and long-term action plans for lowering energy intensity.

( With inputs from ANI )