Energy Subsidies in India

India is currently one of the most polluted countries in the world, with air pollution contributing to hundreds of thousands of deaths per year—much caused by burning biomass fuel, such as wood and dung. The health impacts, and the burden of collecting and preparing traditional fuels, falls disproportionately on women and children.

This paper develops a broad framework for understanding the links between government interventions and the wider drivers of asset stranding and applies this to India’s coal power sector as a first case study.

In 2015, nearly 780 million people, or more than 60 per cent of the Indian population, did not have access to clean cooking. Like many countries, the Government of India has attempted to address this by subsidizing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Solar power has a key role in India's transition towards universal household electrification by March 2019. India has a growing market for off-grid products, recording its highest sales volume of off-grid products in 2017.

This side event focused on fossil fuel subsidy reform as a means to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including through opportunities for financing and sustainable energy access.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 calls upon the global community to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030.

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is home to the country’s largest number of people without electricity access: as of late 2017, 14.6 million households—49 per cent of the state’s total—are yet to be electrified.