India’s energy efficiency improved faster between 2000 and 2023, than BRICS and global average: RBI study

India's energy efficiency has improved faster than global average

India’s energy efficiency, characterised by amount of energy used to perform a task, improved by 1.9 percent between 2000 and 2023, faster than the global average of 1.4 percent, results of a study published in Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monthly bulletin noted.

Although energy efficiency lagged developed markets, like the US and Germany, which witnessed an over 2 percent rise during this period, India was far ahead of its BRICS peers (1.62 percent).

The study found that while the country added 706 million tonnes of carbon emissions between 2012 and 2022, the primary driver of this was economic growth, which contributed over 1000 million tonnes of carbon. However, rising energy intensity helped shave off 399 million tonnes from this.

“Going ahead, the emission factor effect is expected to play a more prominent role as renewables increasingly replace fossil fuels and green hydrogen usage expands in industries,” RBI researchers said.

The study points that despite improvements in decoupling emissions from growth, India needs to institute further changes to achieve the net zero goal.

India has set a net zero target for 2070.

“India should intensify its focus on expanding renewable energy. Solar and wind power tariffs are now lower than those for new coal power plants, dispelling earlier concerns about the high costs of renewables,” RBI researchers pointed out.

Despite making significant capacity additions over the last few years, solar and wind accounted for only 2.1 percent of primary energy in 2022-23.