Environmental Consequences of Meeting India’s 2070 Net-zero Pledge

By Nitin Bassi

India made all the headlines on Day 1 of the COP26 at Glasgow by announcing its pledge to become carbon neutral (or reach net-zero carbon emissions) by 2070. While it is still unclear whether the commitment is to reduce or offset all the greenhouse gases or only the carbon dioxide alone, several experts have already shared their opinion and suggested a road map to achieve the net-zero emissions target by the deadline. In this article, we discuss the environmental consequences of reaching the net-zero emission target, probably the dimension which is overlooked by many.

First, let us understand what India committed at the COP26. It declared to achieve four targets in the short-term (by 2030) in its preparation towards fulfilling the 2070 net-zero pledge. They include: reaching renewable energy capacity of 500 gigawatts (GW); sourcing 50% of India’s energy (read electricity) requirements from the renewables; reducing projected carbon dioxide emissions by a billion tons; and, reducing its carbon intensity (emissions released per unit GDP) by 45%. No doubt these are difficult targets to achieve given that the present installed renewable capacity is only about 134 GW and the government focus is to fasten economic growth by offering various environmental rebates and financial incentives to manufacturing sector in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. ??

That said, one aspect which is presently overlooked is the environmental concerns these short-term targets may lead to. In this article, the focus is on renewables. Of late, India’s strategy towards renewables is primarily based on using solar and wind energy. Since both sunshine and wind are available for a few hours a day, the energy generated using them needs to be stored to ensure continuous supply at the place of demand. This means investments are required for necessary storage infrastructure like batteries which will also need replacement after every 5 or 6 years. Thus, we are looking at the huge electronic waste (e-waste) that needs to be disposed of in an environmentally safe manner. However, India’s experience with handling e-waste is not encouraging. Most of the major Indian cities have informal units or markets where the old batteries are dismantled to extract different useful materials. Since these units operate without any safe e-waste disposal practices, heavy metals contained in the battery or acidic solutions used for its dismantling are disposed off in the environment. If battery end up in a landfill, its cells can release toxins, including heavy metals. These toxins can pollute soil and water bodies and can enter the food chain, causing serious public health hazards.

The other environmental consequence relates to the manufacturing and disposal of old solar PV panels. The panels are made of crystalline silicon which is extracted from quartz sand at high temperatures. This process accounts for nearly 60% of the total energy requirement of PV module production. As per the available estimates from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology-UK, the carbon footprint of PV panels over the full life cycle (mainly during extraction, transport, and processing) varies from 35 g to 88 g CO2-eq/kWh, depending on the amount of available sunlight and operational efficiency of the solar PV system. It is going to be highest for countries like India where fossil fuel based energy is the main supply source for industries. Further, these emissions are significantly higher than other low-carbon technologies for producing electricity, which include hydroelectric plants (2–13 g CO2-eq/kWh), geothermal power plants (15–53 g CO2-eq/kWh), nuclear power plants (less than 26 g CO2-eq/kWh), and wind turbines (20–38 g CO2-eq/kWh). Thus, in reality, solar panels are not carbon-free.

Even if we assume that most of the solar PV panels in India are imported from our neighbor in the north-east because of the lower manufacturing cost, their operational life is very short (7-8 years) and thus will have to be replaced frequently. So along with the battery waste, we will face the challenge of disposing huge waste comprising of solar panels. An IIT-Delhi study estimates that around 2.95 billion tons of solar power material could enter India’s e-waste stream by 2047, considering that the country will deploy about 347.5 GW of peak power from solar panels by 2030. Presently, there is no clear strategy on how this waste will be handled.

The last environmental concern is from wind turbines. In India, the suitable location for the installation of wind turbines is either coastal areas or the top of the hills which usually have wild areas. For the latter, to make the best use of the conditions, the wind farm is spread over more land area in comparison to other renewables or fossil fuel based power stations. This can lead to fragmentation of the wildlife habitat and pose threat to the hill ecosystem (refer to Skarin et al., 2015; da Costa et al., 2018). Further, the spinning of turbine blades can pose a significant threat to the avian population. Though these concerns may appear minor in comparison to the emissions from the fossil fuel based power generation plants, when visualized at scale there can be a significant impact on the bio-diversity.

No doubt India needs to make big progress to make its economic growth carbon neutral. Though hydropower offers the least carbon footprint, it is unlikely to feature in the government's short-term strategy because of the time required for getting environmental clearances, construction, and establishing such power generation systems. Therefore, the focus is more on solar and wind based power plants. However, such options are likely to generate adverse environmental consequences as discussed briefly in this article. They need to be addressed at the planning stage itself. Otherwise, India will be looking at more alarming environmental problems in the future. ?

References

da Costa, G. F., Paula, J., Petrucci-Fonseca, F., & álvares, F. (2018). The Indirect Impacts of Wind Farms on Terrestrial Mammals: Insights from the Disturbance and Exclusion Effects on Wolves (Canis lupus). In?Biodiversity and Wind Farms in Portugal?(pp. 111-134). Springer, Cham.

Skarin, A., Nellemann, C., R?nneg?rd, L., Sandstr?m, P., & Lundqvist, H. (2015). Wind farm construction impacts reindeer migration and movement corridors.?Landscape Ecology,?30(8), 1527-1540.

Nitin Bassi is Principal Researcher with the Institute for Resource Analysis and Policy [IRAP]. Views expressed are personal.