Event Date: 18th May 2023

About the Topic 

At the Glasgow Agreement COP26 India pledged to cut its total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, reduce the carbon intensity of the nation’s economy by less than 45% by the end of the decade and net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. India also pledged 50% of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030. Both of these commitments, along with others, gave rise to the various schemes, decisions and action plans put forth by the Government of India in line to achieve the set targets. Many of these targets focus on increasing India’s Electric Mobility market keeping in mind the rapid rate of urbanisation and population growth. This is predominantly because of correlation between the transport sector, rate of urbanisation and increasing population levels with the increasing CO2 emissions. Looking at the climate change goals in relation to the transport sector and urbanisation related data can put Electric Mobility and its scope into perspective. 

The transport sector accounts for around 11% of total CO2 emissions as per Study conducted by GIZ in cooperation with NITI Ayog. It also accounts for one-third of the total crude oil consumed in the country, where 80% is being consumed by road transportation alone. This sector contributes 142 million tonnes of CO2 emission, of which 123 million tonnes is released by the road sector alone (Bureau of Energy Efficiency, India). These staggering numbers pose questions on India’s goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. To fulfil this goal among other things, India needs to develop its transport sector sustainably by increasing the share of non-fossil fuel based vehicles including electric vehicles. 

If one tracks the areas with the highest percentage of usage of transport systems, it clearly shows the urban cities being at the forefront. As per the World Bank Report, around 56% of the world’s population live in cities and by 2050, every 7 out 10 people are expected to live in urban areas. According to a United Nations report, India’s urban population is projected to stand at 675 million by 2035, second only after China’s 1 billion. The rapid urbanisation and increasing population levels bring with it more demand for goods and services which in turn increase the percentage of all types of vehicles coming to and from, and being driven in and around these urban areas. The pattern is consistent for cities across the world. In Indian context, the speedy and substantive growth of the urban population has given rise to several concerns, with those connected to a substantially augmented rate of vehicle ownership and growing requirement for alternative energy powered transport systems in the country. 

When looking at the EV landscape in India, the numbers say a lot. As per a Market Analysis Study ‘the India electric vehicle market size was valued at USD 220.1 million in 2020 with the commercial vehicle segment accounting for around 57% of the overall market; and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 94.4% from 2021 to 2030’. The same report also forecasts the revenue of this sector to grow as high as $152.2 Billion by 2030. With such high potential, the discourse around Electric Mobility in India is more paramount now than ever. The electric mobility sector has the potential to make a significant impact on the problems around pollution and climate change, but we might need to consider an array of options to come together when discussing the transport sector and energy, keeping in mind Electric Mobility’s shortcomings. So, before we join the Electric Mobility bandwagon, there is a crucial requirement to discuss and deliberate on such issues and get a clear picture of where India and the world stand when it comes to Electric Mobility which Dialogue 4 aims to do.

Aim of the Dialogue

The significant impact electric mobility could have on reducing CO2 emissions contributed by the transport sector is not being debated. However, to do so successfully in the prescribed time would require crossing numerous hurdles. Few issues of shifting towards electric mobility are the actual sourcing of the energy required to produce electric; capability of the current electricity grids and the requirement to modernise grids and substations and the growing rate of personal vehicles for transportation. Furthermore, it is imperative to also discuss the infrastructure change required to cater to the demands and needs  to shift the transport system to EV, the market capability to supplement electric transport vehicles especially trucks and buses, batteries etc. and many more. The dialogue will leverage national as well as global learnings with respect to the Electric Mobility sector, the hits and misses incurred in other nations, the technological know-how that might aid India to overhaul the transport sector and make it as green as possible emission wise.

To sum up, the dialogue will focus broadly on:

1. Is EV a sure-shot roadmap to reducing emissions in India?
2. The structural and infrastructure problems in order to incorporate EV into the private and commercial vehicular sector.
3. The practises that can be customised and adopted in India from other countries.
   1. Learnings from other nations when it comes to Energy and EV. 
4. What does EV 2070 look like in accordance with India’s 2070 goal of net zero emissions? 

Moderator

Dr Madhu P Pillai, Advisor, Industry & Energy at CPPR.

Dr Pillai is a Project Management Expert with more than 38 years of broad-based Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, and Power industry experience in Operations and Project Management in India, Nigeria, the USA, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Dr Pillai is an Engineer with a post-graduation in Management and a PhD in Strategic Project Management. He is a Fellow of many leading international organisations. Dr Pillai has spoken in more than 40 international conferences and also chaired many. He has been part of the global director board of many leading non-profit professional organizations

Speakers

1. Mr Mike Lynch 

President, Strategic Energy & Economic Research

Distinguished Fellow, Energy Policy Research Institute, Massachusetts, USA

Michael C. Lynch is president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research, a Massachusetts-based consultancy and a Distinguished Fellow with the Washington-based Energy Policy Research Foundation. He earned an S.B.-S.M. from the M.I.T. political science department in 1979, and afterwards held a number of research positions at M.I.T. Subsequently, he was chief energy economist at DRI-WEFA, and served as president of the US Association for Energy Economics. He is a senior contributor at forbes.com, and his publications have appeared in seven languages. Praeger published his book The Peak Oil Scare and the Coming Oil Flood in July 2016.

.

2. Mr Anil Srivastava

Visiting Prof. of Practice, Deptt. of Sustainable Energy Engineering, IIT Kanpur 

Self-starter leader, with extensive experience in Civil Aviation, Electric Vehicle, Storage Battery, Transformative Mobility, Public Service, Program Implementation, Policy Formulation, Corporate Management, Global Negotiations, Monitoring & Evaluation in Government, most recently as Principal Consultant & Mission Director of National Mission on Electric Vehicle & Battery Storage at NITI, Principal Adviser & Director General in NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), last eight (8) years of assignments includes 3 years leading Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage initiatives – India’s transition to electric vehicles, resulting in major policy decisions by Ministries, Departments & State Governments, leadership positions in all areas of Civil Aviation in Government, including 3 years as CMD of Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. Prepared an output & outcome based monitoring & evaluation framework for the Central Government’s budget and for Prime Minister’s review.  

3. Mr Talat Munshi

Senior Advisor at UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre

Talat Munshi is working as Senior Advisor at UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre. His work and research is in climate change and cities in developing countries, particularly analysing the role of land use, transport and geo-information science in mitigation and adaptation. Previously, he has worked as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Planning, CEPT University India, as Lecturer in Transport at Faculty of ITC, University of Twente Netherlands, at The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), India and with Surat Municipal Corporation, India.

He has experience in research and consulting work with countries in Africa, Asia and Europe on topics related to urban planning, transport and climate finance and has a significant number of published articles on these subjects. Mr Talat is an engineer by training from CEPT University. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Twente (UT) and Master’s degrees in Environmental Planning from CEPT University and in Urban Infrastructure Management from faculty of ITC, UT.