For the RE sector to lead responsibly, it must address land use, circularity and financing

Delhi, Tuesday 14 February 2023: Investors, policy makers, bureaucrats and representatives of India’s growing renewable energy sector assembled in Delhi today to discuss three key challenges to making the country’s RE sector ecologically safe, rights-respecting and socially just.

Delivering the keynote address, Mr. Rajnath Ram, Adviser – Energy, NITI Aayog said, “In the recent budget, almost Rs. one lakh crores was announced as allocations towards green growth initiatives, but the challenge for the renewable energy sector is to ensure that the community participates and gets great benefit from it.”

Bharath Jairaj, Executive Director, Energy, WRI India said, “The Responsible Energy Initiative (REI) was built on a set of principles that we and our partners agreed upon. These are based on lofty universal values but that’s what we need right now to ensure the RE sector is socially just and environmentally sound. Over the past few months, we’ve attempted to translate these principles into actionable pilots on land use, circularity, and financing, because these principles must not be just goals but actions for the RE sector must take forward.”

As the Union Government’s recent budget allocations suggest projects like the 13GWh solar-wind hybrid in Ladakh getting primacy over other forms of RE, like distributed renewables and off-grid, concerns have been expressed by communities living in these regions over loss of livelihoods, and lands for grazing and allied activities.

Finding land that is increasingly scarce for installations of grid-scale wind and solar energy is beginning to become a challenge. Moreover, concerns about permanently altering land use patterns in rural India, loss of livelihoods of communities that hitherto used these lands as village commons, farmlands, water catchment areas, or as sacred groves, is leading to a pushback by communities where these RE projects are sited.

Shirish S Garud, Senior Fellow and Director, TERI, said, “REI aims to set new norms and guidelines for land use and land ownerships. We are proposing pilots to evaluate the options and impacts of renewable energy projects on farmlands."

Ensuring the RE sector is kept accountable to society and nature, requires financing institutions to build frameworks that consider social, ecological and circularity processes while taking investment decisions, be they private capital, Sovereign Wealth Funds, or international development organisations.

“Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent Budget announcements made clear the need to seek the RE sector to become more responsible. The RE sector must seize this opportunity to ensure it leads by not committing the mistakes that mark the fossil fuel industry, which is extraction and inequity,” saidAnna Biswas, Managing Director (India), Forum for the Future.

And as the RE sector grows, it will need significant natural resources and will generate waste at an unsustainable level, unless circularity is introduced into the production process, safeguarding the sector's potential for positive social and environmental impacts.

The day-long event, called the Responsible Renewable Energy Summit, is led by REI India's core partners World Resources Institute India ("WRI India"), The Energy and Resources Institute ("TERI") and Forum for the Future ("Forum") and supported by expert partners including the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre ("BHRRC"), Council on Energy, Environment and Water ("CEEW"), Consensus Building Institute ("CBI"), Climate Group, Landesa, WWF India. The Summit was organised by REI India with organising partners The Nature Conservancy, NSEFI and Vasudha Foundation.

-ENDS-

For media queries please contact:

Kunal Shankar, WRI India: [email protected]
Madhulika Verma, Climate Trends: [email protected]
Anima, TERI: [email protected]
Fern Yu, Forum for the Future: [email protected]

About the Responsible Energy Initiative India

The Responsible Energy Initiative is a multi-year programme working to ensure renewable energy in Asia achieves its full potential and creates value in a way that is ecologically safe, rights-respecting and socially just. The Responsible Energy Initiative seeks to enable the RE sector in Asia to adopt business models and value chains keeping justice, equity, universal rights and resilient ecological systems at their core. The first inquiry started in India in 2020.

Latest

Advancing climate justice: A call to action for businesses

Explore the insights from The Business Guide to Advancing Climate Justice, co-published by Forum for the Future and B Lab U.S. and Canada, with reflections from Ksenia Benifand, American Climate Futures’ Program Director.
Shape Just Transition Pathways

There are a multitude of decarbonisation solutions and many technically possible pathways to achieving net-zero, but there is a risk that some pathways will be incremental and others may perpetuate harm to people and the planet. We enable change actors in the energy system to navigate the evolving energy landscape that is being driven by innovation in energy technologies, business models and government policy.
Reimagine Purpose

The energy transition holds the potential to shape a more equitable world, but also to perpetuate and grow existing energy, economic and social inequities. We need to reimagine the purpose of the energy system, ensuring it reflects the needs of citizens and communities and best enables a transition to a future-fit system that delivers just and regenerative outcomes.
Scale socially just, ecologically safe and regenerative RE

Scaling renewable energy offers affordable, reliable energy and fights climate change. However, unregulated deployment may bring environmental, social, and human rights issues. We collaborate with energy change actors to co-create a vision and principles for socially equitable and environmentally responsible renewable energy.

New direction needed for Philippines’ renewable energy sector to be at pace with urgency of the climate emergency

The Responsible Energy Initiative Philippines consortium argues that not attending to emerging risks in utility-scale renewable energy value chains may likely slow down the just energy transition in the Philippines.
Businesses must adopt a transformative mindset to build resilience through the climate crisis

New report from international non-profit Forum for the Future highlights five key shifts businesses should implement to build operational resilience through intensifying social and environmental crises
Leading Environmentalist and Founder Director of Forum for the Future, Jonathon Porritt, Steps Down After Almost 30 Years of Service

International sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future has today announced that its Founder Director, Jonathon Porritt, is stepping down after almost 30 years of service.
Fairness, transition cost-sharing and recalibration of value-sharing headline findings of 2023 Oxford Farming Conference report
Latest guidance for the private sector on how to simultaneously tackle escalating climate and health crises
New Coalition formed to mobilise private sector on climate and health

International sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future and leading healthcare businesses Bupa, Haleon, Reckitt and Walgreens Boots Alliance have joined forces to mobilise and equip the private sector to accelerate the integrated transformation of health and climate systems, delivering benefits for both people and planet.
Boycotts and bans are not the solution to creating a sustainable edible fats and oils sector

Global multi-stakeholder initiative, the Edible Fats and Oils Collaboration, urges the food and feed industry to advocate for new policy that considers the sustainability aspects of all fats and oils in one holistic system, instead of vilifying individual ingredients.
Half of all cotton growing regions could face severe climate risks by 2040

The first-ever global analysis of climate risks to global cotton production reveals that runaway climate change could expose half of all global cotton growing regions to high risks from temperature increases, changes to rainfall patterns and extreme weather events by 2040.
How do I start regenerative agriculture?

Transforming to regenerative agriculture is a systemic challenge. We created a seven-point-roadmap which identifies key actions that players across the supply chain must take to drive change in the industry.
What is regenerative agriculture?

Regenerative agriculture is one that puts back more into the environment and society than it takes out.

The Five Capitals - a framework for sustainability

The Five Capitals Model provides a basis for understanding sustainability in terms of the economic concept of wealth creation or ‘capital’. Any organisation will use five types of capital to deliver its products or services. A sustainable organisation will maintain and where possible enhance these stocks of capital assets, rather than deplete or degrade them.
Jobs

We are a growing organisation and we are regularly on the look out for new recruits to join our teams around the world.
For a just and regenerative future

Forum for the Future is a leading international sustainability organisation running out of offices in the UK, US, India and Singapore.
Growing our Future US

Working together to accelerate the transition to a just and regenerative agriculture system in the United States.
Sustainability and system change

Climate change, malnutrition, inequality, poverty, ecological degradation. The global challenges we face are so urgent and tricky that we need a solution to match their scale and complexity. This is where system change comes in. We use systems thinking to understand the web of interrelations that create complex problems, anticipate unintended consequences, and identify how and where to take action to meet the SDG goals.
What is Net Positive?

We reinvent strategies for a 1.5°C world. Our Net Positive approach helps business put back more into society and environment than it takes out. Unilever’s pioneering commitment to eliminate fossil fuels from its operations and directly support the generation of more renewable energy than they consume was driven behind the scenes by Forum.
Transport or Mobility: What’s the difference and why does it matter?

Recently, the word transportation is being replaced with mobility. Why is this happening? What’s the difference between them? And why should we care about this change?
Become a system change agent

Learn more about upcoming system change programmes and express your interest.
6 ways Unilever has achieved success through sustainability - and how your business can too

A year ago this week, Unilever launched its Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), one of the most ambitious strategies that a global company has ever embarked on. Pioneering a bold new business model, the company pledged to double in size at the same time as halving its environmental footprint.
Transforming the Purpose of Business

More and more businesses like are setting ambitious targets for positive impact on their operations, value chains and wider operating context. For more than 25 years we have partnered with businesses to navigate this complexity and design impactful solutions that deliver the deeper change that’s needed. Why not get in touch to find out more?