Kathmandu– The effects of climate change can be minimized by reducing the greenhouse emissions if Nepal and China exchange the renewable energy, experts in this field said.
India produced solar energy through solar plant and Nepal generate electricity through hydropower. Program Director at the Centre for Environment and Energy Development Abhishek Kumar said that it will be beneficial for environment if the electricity produced in both the countries is exchanged in an easy way.
“Electricity generated in Nepal can be exported to India. Electricity produced in India can be imported to Nepal,” he said, adding, “Electricity produced in Nepal will fulfill the necessity of India during the gloomy day and when the solar does not work and when the electricity generation decreases during summer in Nepal, the electricity produced from solar can be imported to Nepal.”
At least 48,000 megawatt electricity is produced from petroleum products in India. This has contributed to meet 19 percent of the total demand of electricity. Likewise, 25 percent electricity is being generated from natural gas. The electricity produced from natural gas has contributed 6 percent of the total demand.
India has been enlisted in the list of the country which can produce electricity from wind. According to the statistics till 31st December 2018, 35,000 megawatt electricity is being produced from wind. India has been generating 24,000 megawatt electricity from solar.
India is in the third place after China and America to produce greenhouse gas in the world. According to Paris agreement signed in 2016 to reduce greenhouse gas, India has been focusing on producing renewable energy.
India has been working with an aim to reduce the bio energy by 40 percent by 2030 and fulfill the reduced energy through renewable energy.
India has been preparing to produce 100,000 megawatt electricity through solar by 2022.
Effects in Nepal
Nepal is not immune to any kind of environment and climate related incidents in India. The pollution of India has been directly affecting Nepal like the mountains of Nepal are melting fast. It has been learnt that the main cause of atmospheric pollution is the emission of greenhouse gas in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh of India.
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bangal are connected to Nepal. These states are still reeling under electricity shortage. Journalist Bikash Thapa, who has been writing news on electricity and water sources since long, said that there is a high possibility to export electricity produced in Nepal to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. But Nepal has not been able to export the electricity as India is not so serious about it, he said.
Out of total 350,162 megawatt electricity produced in India at present, 50 percent has been produced from coal. The use of coal is not good for environment.
Thapa said that it will have positive effect in Nepal soon after India stressed on producing renewable energy. “Nepal will have environmental advantage in a direct or an indirect way if India increases the use of renewable energy,” he said. “There is no possibility of producing electricity through hydro in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar of India. The easy way to fulfill the demand of those states will be the electricity of Nepal. Nepal will have economic benefit if India buys the electricity from Nepal.”
According to Nepal Electricity Authority, the daily demand of electricity in Nepal is 1400 megawatt. Nepal has been supplying 1,000 megawatt electricity including 300 megawatt imported from India daily.
High risk
India is not at high risk as compared to Nepal due to climate change. According to the study, India has been ranked the 14th in the list of most vulnerable nation while Nepal is at the fourth place. Various studies have shown that the effect of climate change will cause a loss of 1.8 percent to the gross domestic products by the mid of this century.
Climate change will mostly affect Agriculture, tourism and fish business sector.
The 21st Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) held in Paris from November 30th to December 12th, 2015 had reached an agreement to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius –above pre-industrial levels—and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The agreement is called the Paris agreement.
