Bhubaneswar: CPR advises eastern states to promote EV adoption
BHUBANESWAR: The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) set up by the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) at NISER, Bhubaneswar on Tuesday recommended the eastern states, including Odisha, to form solar energy producer organisations in every panchayat and urban local bodies in public-private partnership mode.
On the first day of the policy dialogue on ‘Energy Transition in Eastern India: Issues and Challenges’, the CPR released two policy briefs urging the eastern states to facilitate the establishment of more charging stations to promote the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and create more awareness as eastern states have lower EV adoption rates compared to rest of India. As per the estimates of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Odisha has the second highest per capita carbon emission, next to Gujarat. But in contrast, Gujarat has the 7th highest per capita income, which is almost double the per capita income of Odisha. Neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have the third and fourth highest per capita emissions in the country.
Coordinator of CPR, NISER Amarendra Das said the carbon emission is largely driven by the mining and metal-based industry.
Although the distribution of benefits from the mining industry is pretty low because of low employment opportunities, their pollution distribution is quite high.
Keeping in view the growth of mining and metal-based industries the pollution load may increase in the eastern region led by Odisha, he said.
Member of Atomic Energy Council Prof RB Grover, secretary of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) Prof Akhilesh Gupta, director of NISER Prof HN Ghosh, chairperson of SHSS Pranay Kumar Swain and director-budget Satya Priya Rath spoke during the inaugural session.