energy future: WB chiefBy Lalit K JhaWashington, Dec 10 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi,who has set a very ambitious target for India to reduce itscarbon intensity, is committed to moving the country to alower carbon renewable energy future, World bank President JimYong Kim has said.
"I am very optimistic about what could happen withrenewable energy (in India). The other thing that's soimportant is Prime Minister Modi is very personal, very publicand very strong support of moving India to a lower carbonrenewable energy future," Kim told reporters in a conferencecall ahead of the One Planet Summit in France tomorrow.
In an interaction with reporters on bank's continuingwork on climate change mitigation and its efforts at helpingdeveloping countries implement the Paris Agreement, Kim saidhe and the World Bank has worked very closely with Modi.
"Among one of the major projects that we're putting onthe table at the summit is a ultra-mega project in India forsolar," he said yesterday in response to a question.
"Prime Minister Modi has made a very ambitious target forIndia to reduce its carbon intensity. Especially in the areasof solar and hydro, India is really leading. The SolarAlliance that Prime Minister Modi is spearheading has alsobeen extremely important," Kim said.
But there is still a lot of work to do, he observed. "Ithink the Indian government is very much aware of that."Kim said there are two most encouraging things for India.
"One is that the cost of solar and the both the cost andsize of battery storage is progressing so quickly...the lowestprice per kilowatt hour that we've seen so far is in Mexicoone point seven cents a kilowatt hour which for many countriesmakes solar less than half the cost of coal," he said.
"Then also what we've seen is the rapid advances inbattery storage technology. So experts have said at one pointthat there is an actual physical limit to the size and thecost of a battery storage technology and we've already brokenthrough that supposed physical limit quite aggressively," hesaid.
In France, Kim would be hosting the One Planet summitwith French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary GeneralAntonio Guterres to mark the two-year anniversary of thesigning of the Paris agreement.
"We are coming together not only to reaffirm ourcommitment to the agreement and to showcase some of the worktaking place, but more importantly to look at ways to mobilizethe scale of financing needed to create a low carbon climateresilient future for the economies of the world," Kim said.
PTI LKJZH.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.