World Bank lauds India’s success in renewable energy auctions

Katowice (Poland), Dec 11: India’s success in renewable energy auctions that delivered record-setting low prices for solar power has come in for praise from the World Bank.

n a report — Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) 2018, charting global progress on sustainable energy policies– it said that the number of countries with strong policy frameworks for sustainable energy more than tripled — from 17 to 59 — in the eight years till 2017.

It further said on the sidelines of the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(COP24) that many of the world’s largest energy-consuming countries significantly improved their renewable energy regulations since 2010.

Progress was even more marked in energy efficiency, with the percentage of countries establishing advanced policy frameworks growing more than 10-fold between 2010 and 2017, the World Bank added.

“Among countries with large populations living without electricity, 75 per cent had by 2017 put in place the policies and regulations needed to expand energy access. But there were still significant barriers to global progress on sustainable energy,” the report said.

It, however, lamented that policies to decarbonize heating and transportation, which account for 80 per cent of global energy use, continued to be overlooked while countries continue to be focused on clean energy policies for electricity.