State Energy and Climate Index- UPSC Current Affairs

Why in the News?

• Recently, NITI Aayog launched the State Energy & Climate Index-Round I. 
• The index is based on 2019-20 data. 

Image Source: NITI AAYOG

Probable Question

Discuss the Panchamrit advocacy of five elements for climate change at CoP-26.

About the State Energy & Climate Index (SECI)

• The State Energy and Climate Index (SECI) is the first index that aims to track the efforts made by States and UTs in the climate and energy sector.
• Objectives: The objectives of the index are: 
  • Ranking the States based on their efforts towards improving energy access, energy consumption, energy efficiency, and safeguarding the environment.
  • Helping drive the agenda of the affordable, accessible, efficient and clean energy transition at the State level.
  • Encouraging healthy competition among the states on different dimensions of energy and climate.
• The State Energy & Climate Index (SECI) Round I ranks the states’ performance on 6 parameters:
  • DISCOM’s Performance 
  • Access, Affordability and Reliability of Energy 
  • Clean Energy Initiatives 
  • Energy Efficiency 
  • Environmental Sustainability; and 
  • New Initiatives.
• These parameters have been devised keeping in mind India’s goals for climate change and clean energy transition. It is further divided into 27 indicators.

Also read: Green Initiatives for Effective Plastic Waste Management- UPSC Current Affairs

Key Findings

• Based on the composite SECI Round I score, the states and UTs are categorized into three groups: Front Runners, Achievers, and Aspirants.
• The states have been categorized based on size and geographical differences as Larger States, Smaller States, and UTs. 
  • Larger States: Gujarat, Kerala, and Punjab have been ranked as the top three performers in the category of larger states. 
    • Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were the bottom three States. 
  • Smaller States: Goa, emerged as the top-performing state in the smaller states category, followed by Tripura, and Manipur. 
  • UTs: Chandigarh, Delhi, Daman & Diu/Dadra & Nagar Haveli are the top performers.
• Punjab was the best performer in Discom performance while Kerala topped in the access, affordability and reliability category.
• Haryana was the best performer in clean energy initiatives among larger States and Tamil Nadu in the energy efficiency category.

Significance of the Index

• The best practices for all indicators in better–performing States can be adopted by other States to improve their performance. 
• The SECI will help States to understand their performance across multiple parameters/indicators.
• The performance of the States should be regularly documented and disseminated through mediums such as SECI to promote peer–to–peer learning.
• SECI provides us an opportunity to work closely on strengthening energy systems and energy data management which is the crux of every planning process and development. 
• It intends to create awareness among citizens in terms of energy and climate indicators and to initiate debate for better energy and climate-related services. 

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India’s Performance in Global Energy Indices

India’s Climate Change Commitments

The Prime Minister of India at the COP-26 Glasgow summit presented five nectar elements, Panchamrit, to deal with climate change:

• India will reach its non-fossil installed electricity capacity to 500 GW by 2030.
• India will meet 50% of its electricity requirements from renewable energy by 2030.
• India will reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now onwards till 2030.
• By 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by less than 45%.
• By the year 2070, India will achieve the target of Net-zero.

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