A variety of political, ethical, and economic considerations shape the progress of leading Asian countries as they convert to renewable energy. With China investing in a variety of sources, emphasizing solar, and India raising questions about the burden of historical legacies of development, the decisions, progress, concerns and innovations of these Asian powers have a huge impact on the rest of the world, and can serve as role models for other nations.
Every year, over a million people die as a result of poor air quality in China—decades of economic progress fueled by coal slashed poverty rates, but at the cost of the environment, and of lives. Recently, the Chinese government has been asserting the importance of lowering its emissions levels, and in cooperation with international goals set by the Paris Agreement, China has agreed to reduce its coal consumption and have 20% of its energy come from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2030. It intends to significantly increase its wind, solar, and natural gas capacities, has regulated car emissions standards as stringently as Europe, and closed many coal-fired plants in heavy industry.
Yet, as China develops its COVID-19 stimulus plan, it will continue to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into non-renewable energy projects—vastly exceeding spending plans for low-carbon energy. It employed a similar tactic following the 2008 financial crisis, though China’s economy has been impacted far less by the pandemic than by that recession. The stimulus plan stands in alarming contrast to the recent announcement by President Xi Jinping to achieve “carbon neutrality” before 2060, raising the question of the extent to which China, and of course many other countries, make these kinds of pledges for the sake of international prestige rather than out of a true commitment to the aim of reducing harmful emissions. While China’s progress and leadership in recent years has been admirable, now more than ever, doubling down on sustainability goals is the most prudent approach to recovering from the pandemic—not abandoning them for short-sighted relief.
India’s priorities have also shifted over time, from rapid growth with fossil fuels to a greener approach that includes investing in a variety of renewables in addition to more traditional carbon-based forms of energy. The slow transition can be attributed to several factors. India has the second greatest population of any country, and one that is still rapidly growing, but lacks the infrastructure to support even its current residents. This created an urgent need to expand the power grid to provide millions of people with electricity—a goal that has largely been achieved with reliance on fossil fuels. India has also leaned away from international agreements on climate goals because of a general distrust for international organizations, which are dominated by western powers like the U.S.—themselves massive emitters. Finally, the historical legacy of development discouraged an earlier transition in India, with many people believing that most of the damage to the environment has been the fault of western countries since the Industrial Revolution, and it is these countries that benefitted from the very same processes that they now discourage developing nations from utilizing. The ethical questions surrounding the historical burden of the west’s development are further complicated by India’s own religious and historical legacy of environmental protection. In translation, the ancient Hindu text says “Keep pure! For the Earth is our mother! And we are her children!”—a policy that embeds sustainability into Indian culture.
Despite these conflicts, India has ultimately begun the transition toward sustainable energy sources. Financial analysts have predicted that energy from solar in particular will be cheaper than coal in the coming years, so investing in renewables is the most sensible solution to both questions of development and of the environmental crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government announced the goal of 450 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, up from the 86.3 GW it had at the beginning of this year. Ajay Shankar, a distinguished fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), emphasizes in regards to India that one of the greatest remaining hurdles in wind and solar is the cost of energy storage, but that “India is taking the first steps towards deploying storage technologies.” As a whole, questions of ethics and legacy seem to fall away in the face of urgent development needs and the increasingly dire environmental situation.
In contrasting China and India’s approaches to converting to renewables, one must consider the historical and economic forces at play. After some obstacles, both seem to be on a path toward sustainability, which is crucial to the possibility of seriously lowering global emissions, considering the two country’s growing populations. Ideally, countries around the world can model their development on China and India, and smaller neighboring countries will benefit from implementing similar systems with the help of these regional powers.
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