India has achieved the target of 10% ethanol blending in petrol five months ahead of schedule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday. This is up from 1.5% in 2014, he said.
“There are three clear benefits of achieving this goal: first, it has led to a reduction of 27 lakh tonnes of carbon emission; second, it has saved foreign exchange worth ₹41,000 crore and; thirdly, farmers of the country have earned ₹40,600 crore in the last eight years due to increase in ethanol blending,” Modi told the ‘Save The Soil’ programme on World Environment Day.
The Centre promotes the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme with the aim of enhancing energy security, reducing import dependency on fuel, saving foreign exchange, addressing environmental issues and giving a boost to agriculture. The ‘National Policy on Biofuels’ notified by the government in 2018 envisaged an indicative target of 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2030.
Given the encouraging performance and various interventions made by the government since 2014, the 20% target was advanced to 2025-26.
The “Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India 2020-25″, released in June 2021, mentioned an intermediate milestone of 10% blending by November, 2022.
“However, due to the coordinated efforts of the public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) the target of 10% blending under the programme has been achieved much ahead of the targeted timelines of November, 2022 wherein the public sector OMCs have attained an average 10% ethanol blending in petrol across the country,” said the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.
“With all the initiatives taken by the government, the EBP programme is on track to achieve the target of 20% blending by 2025-26,” it added.
Modi, in his remarks, said India has achieved the target of sourcing 40% of installed power generation capacity from non-fossil fuel nine years ahead of schedule. Solar energy capacity has increased 18 times and policies like the green hydrogen mission and those related to circular economy, and scrappage were examples of the government’s commitment to protecting the environment.
“The average carbon footprint of the world is about 4 tonnes per person per annum compared to just about 0.5 tonnes per person per annum in India. The country is working on a long- term vision in collaboration with the international community on protecting the environment,” Modi said.
Campaigns like ‘Catch the Rain’ have helped connect people across the nation, he said. In March 2022, a campaign to conserve 13 big rivers was initiated. In this, along with reducing pollution in water, work is being done to plant forests on the banks of rivers.
“Estimates are that this will add a forest cover of 7,400 sq km which will add to the increase of 20,000 sq km forest cover in India that has been added in the last eight years,” Modi added.
The Prime Minister said natural farming provides solutions to some of the biggest problems. He said that in the union budget for FY23, the government has decided to encourage natural farming in villages situated on the banks of the Ganga which will create a huge corridor of natural farming.
“This will not only make our farms chemical free but the Namami Gange campaign will also gain new strength. India is working on the goal of restoring 26 million hectares of land by 2030,” the prime minister said.
For all the latest world News Click Here
