West News Wire: In an effort to reduce emissions and establish itself as a major exporter of green hydrogen, India authorized an incentive program worth 197.4 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) on Wednesday.
Hydrogen that is renewable or “green” can be utilized as fuel. It is created through the electrolysis of water using renewable energy, therefore there are no harmful carbon emissions produced during the process.
Green hydrogen is gaining popularity as a potential replacement for fossil fuels all around the world.
It can be used for heating and powering homes, industry, and transportation. In order to create green hydrogen projects, nations including the US, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and EU countries have committed billions of dollars.
The fuel is currently expensive, and India’s incentive plan, the National Green Hydrogen Mission, aims to reduce production costs and increase the scale of the industry by 2030.
“The mission aims to make India a global hub for production, utilization and export of green hydrogen,” Information Minister Anurag Thakur told reporters after a Cabinet meeting that approved the plan on Wednesday.
“(It) will help India in becoming energy-independent and in decarbonization of major sectors of the economy.”
A Cabinet statement said that the project targets the production of 5 million tons of green hydrogen generating 125 GW of power a year by 2030, cutting about 50 million tons of annual carbon emissions.
It is also forecast to help reduce dependence on fossil fuels and cut import costs by 1 trillion rupees.
The development is also expected to help the country, the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.
However, it was not immediately clear how significant the move will be in achieving the goal.
“It will help in reducing carbon emissions, but to what extent it is difficult to comment,” Satish Sinha, associate director of New Delhi-based environmental NGO Toxic Link, told Arab News.
However, he described the development as “a big step” and “good strategy.”
“It was known that India was investing into hydrogen as a fuel and lots of research activities were going on, and we also looked at how to use hydrogen as fuel cell,” Sinha said.
“It is also a good opportunity to do that when you are having the presidency of the G20. It puts India in a leadership position as far as climate change is concerned.”
