Achieving renewable energy targets by ensuring environmental and social safeguards
Watch the second part of the Responsible Renewable Energy Summit, which explored opportunities to manage risks and to ensure RE development happens in a way that contributes to a just clean energy transition.
How do we ensure that land procurement and use for RE development happens in a way that prevents environmental and social conflicts, and contributes to building resilient communities and thriving natural ecosystems?
A central challenge for enabling a clean energy transition is how to ensure that the transition happens in a socially and ecologically just and responsible manner. The need for rapid development of renewable energy towards meeting our net zero goals will need land and a lot of it. Whether it is to set up power plants or mine minerals for production of RE components.
Furthermore, both utility scale solar and wind farms require way more land in comparison to their thermal counterparts. Together this has reignited the debate around the need for rapid identification of land parcels that are free of social and environmental issues at a time when the availability of suitable, economically desirable land has become scarce.
The first Responsible Renewable Energy Summit, held on 14 February 2023 in-person in Delhi, brought together renewable energy experts, sector pioneers, policy makers, innovators, and civil society representatives to discuss how RE can set a benchmark for responsibility and the value it can create for every citizen in India for generations to come.
The Summit was organised by the Responsible Energy Initiative (REI) India with The Nature Conservancy, Vasudha Foundation, National Solar Energy Federation of India and supported by Climate Trends. REI India is led by Forum for the Future, TERI, and WRI India, with expert partners Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, CEEW, Climate Group, Consensus Building Institute, Landesa and WWF India.
The second panel, Achieving RE targets by ensuring environmental and social safeguards, took inspiration from the keynote and SiteRight tool, and discussed the opportunities to manage risks and to ensure RE development happens in a way that contributes to a just clean energy transition. One of the major themes discussed in the panel was the challenge of identifying land to meet the RE targets, not just at a plant-level but also to mine minerals required in RE components.
The panel was moderated by Dr. Sushil Saigal, Director of Programs, TNC. Panellists included:
- Ms. Pooja Chandran, Senior Project Manager, Foundation for Ecological Security
- Mr. Sanjay Vashishtha, CEO, First Green Private Limited
- Mr. Harikrishna KV, Group Head, Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy
- Mr. Rajnath Ram, Adviser — Energy, Niti Aayog
- Ms. Srestha Banerjee, Director — India Just Transition Centre, iFOREST
- Mr. Raman Mehta, Director Programs, Vasudha Foundation.
Watch the video for the full panel, including the Keynote address by Rajnath Ram, Adviser — Energy, Niti Aayog, and a presentation on the SiteRight Tool by Joseph Kiesecker, Lead Scientist, The Nature Conservancy.
Reach out to Saksham Nijhawan at s.nijhawan@forumforthefuture.org to find out how you can get involved with the Responsible Energy Initiative India.
Watch the rest of the Summit here.
