G2o summit Mumbai focused on energy transition and biofuels

The 3rd Energy Transitions Working Group Meeting (ETWG) under India’s G20 Presidency concluded in Mumbai.

Over 100 delegates from G20 member nations, special invitee nations, and international organisations, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Economic Forum, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM), International Energy Agency (IEA), Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), International Solar Alliance, and International Solar Energy Society, participated in the three-day meeting.

Alok Kumar, Secretary of the Government of India’s Ministry of Power and Chair of the ETWG, presided over the third ETWG meeting. The meeting and deliberations also included Vivek Bharadwaj, Secretary of the Ministry of Mines, and Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, Secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The draft Ministerial Communique was the main item on the agenda for the third ETWG meeting, which also included useful conversations and considerations of priority topics. Member nations presented their corresponding viewpoints. Under India’s G20 presidency, initiatives in the area of energy transitions have gained support. Most notable is the consensus on giving high priority to ensuring universal access to modern and sustainable energy for all.

The three-day conference was supplemented with eight side activities. Policymakers, international bodies, financial institutions, commercial organisations, and topic experts all took part in the side events.

Workshop with Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) with the aim of mobilising low-cost international finance The discussions focused on ensuring that countries have access to finance that would enable the scale-up and implementation of critical and emerging technologies such as battery storage, green hydrogen, offshore wind, bioenergy, and carbon capture and utilisation.

Seminar on the Just Transition Roadmap: The Seminar deliberated upon challenges faced in Just Transition in the coal sector, primarily in coal-dependent economies. The discussions covered lessons learned from various countries in different aspects, namely, institutional governance, repurposing land and infrastructural assets, enabling the sharing of knowledge of successful initiatives taken worldwide, and also facilitating technological and financial assistance through collaborations.

Seminar on Biofuels: The seminar focused on ways to accelerate the development and deployment of biofuels, including new technologies, through strengthening the alliance on collaboration and advancements in biofuel, including creating a Global Biofuel Alliance.

Seminar on Off-shore Wind: The event titled “Harnessing Offshore Wind for Accelerating Energy Transition: The Way Forward” provided a platform to aggregate knowledge and best practises for boosting progress on offshore wind in India and globally.

Sharing global policies and best practises to decarbonise ‘Hard to Abate sectors’ – The objective of the side event was to understand the challenging aspects of industry transition. It examined various issues such as policy alignment and formulation, technology collaboration, finance mobilisation, capacity and skills development, and related aspects of industrial decarbonisation.

Seminar on SMRs (Small Module Reactors) for the Clean Energy Transition This seminar brought together various stakeholders—industry, policymakers, public sector enterprises, private sector companies, regulatory bodies, and international agencies—to deliberate upon the key issues with respect to SMRs development and deployment.

Synergising the Energy Transition Pathways of G20 ETWG and B20, India’s Industry Perspective This was aimed at exchanging high-level commitments through the G20 and business actions from forums like the B20. This event was organised in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), as the designated Secretariat for B20 India.

Accelerating Energy Efficiency and promoting an energy-efficient life. The event brought together Mission Efficiency partners, leading energy efficiency stakeholders, and country representatives to increase focus and provide momentum for ambitious actions on energy efficiency, including through G20 processes, and showcased India’s leadership in promoting energy efficient behaviours and lifestyles through the LiFE Campaign (Lifestyle for the Environment).