LEDs to cut CO2 by 80 mn tonnes a year, save Rs 40,000 cr power

The solar power programme has been scaled up from a 20 GW target to 100 GW by 2022

The government's promotion of light emitting diodes (LED) will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80 million tonnes per annum and save around Rs 40,000 crore in power bills annually, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

"The LED project, where the government is replacing the lighting load of the country with LEDs, will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80 million tonnes per annum and the economically prudent project will help the consumer save around Rs 40,000 crore annually in electricity bills," Goyal told the World Conference on Environment 2017 here.

Similarly, India is trying to move from a highly thermal power generation dependent economy towards renewable energy, he said.

"The solar power programme has been scaled up from a 20 gigawatt (GW) target to 100 GW by 2022. All the renewable sources, including large hydro projects, taken together, India has set sights on on 225 GW of renewable and clean energy by 2022," he added.

Referring to the government's aim of converting all vehicles to electric vehicles, Goyal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had directed a group of senior ministers to lead the initiative to ensure that most vehicles in India, if not all, were powered by electricity latest by 2030.

"The conversion of India's vehicles into electrical ones has the potential to save fossil fuel worth about $100 billion annually and reduce pollution in cities by 80-90 per cent," the minister said.

He said that according to a government study, India can power its entire vehicular traffic in 2030 on solar power by using only 1 per cent of the land area of Rajasthan.

Holding humankind squarely responsible for climate challenge, Goyal cited Mahatma Gandhi's 1911 phrase - "economy of nature" - to say that only human beings themselves can address the issue.

"The Earth provides enough for every man's need, but not for every man's greed," he quoted Gandhi as saying.

"It is time human beings understood that climate change is a challenge caused by humans only and ultimately it is humans who can address it.

"We are living on this planet and using its resources as if we have an another planet to go to later," he said.

The largest loss experienced due to climate change is by the poorest and the underprivileged, the minister added.