G20 Presidency is a turning point for India to deepen its global footprints and reassure its commitment to shared peace and prosperity for the world order, especially highlighting environmental concerns.
Currently, the question of sustainable development has come to center stage in the world. Fossil fuel resources are depleting and fast becoming uneconomic for exploitation. The urgency of the present generation for 'green development', i.e., reducing carbon footprints while ensuring economic growth is also important to reckon with.
India and Saudi Arabia have been great partners in the energy trade. However, there is still a vast scope for Saudi Arabia-India cooperation in this area, as per ANI reports.
Energy consumption grew globally by 2.3 percent in 2018, nearly twice the average rate of growth since 2010 and now it is maintaining the same growth rate. If we keep burning fossil fuels at our current rate, it is generally estimated that all our fossil fuels will be depleted by 2060. And, if the world is trying to limit global warming to the 'relatively' safe level of 2oC by 2050, 80 percent of coal, 50 percent of gas, and 30 percent of oil reserves would be "un-burnable". Along with this, as the oil availability will go down, its exploration and production would also be much costlier.
Saudi Arabia is an important supplier of energy and India is an important consumer and so these could become an example of a smooth transition to more efficient energy production and use.
While India is trying to develop renewable energy, technology especially in solar power and wind energy, there is a lot of scope for cooperation between the two countries, ANI reported.
Saudi Arabia is also looking for new ways to enhance cooperation with India. Meeting the increasing global energy demand from green energy sources is challenging for the international community for several reasons. It aims to generate 50 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2030.
Increased bilateral engagement could be seen from the fact that the Saudi Council of Ministers recently discussed a draft memorandum of understanding with India to cooperate in the fields of energy, which is an indication of Riyadh's eagerness to tap the Indian potential. Private partners of both countries are also looking for cooperation in new areas like renewable or alternative energy, etc.
India is currently undertaking the world's largest energy transition and is running the largest clean energy program, and is committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. Saudi-India cooperation in new fields would definitely go a long way in harbingering peaceful world development and economic prosperity.
(With ANI inputs)
