Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said that 25 airports in the country are already using 100% green energy while another 121 airports will be made carbon neutral by 2025. The minister was addressing the two-day EU-India aviation summit.
 
Asserting that India and the European Union have a common goal of tackling climate change, Scindia stated that, "The emission contribution of the aviation industry has been under immense scrutiny. We have taken several measures to minimise the carbon footprint and mitigate emissions from the aviation industry.”

In line with the announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26, India is committed to achieving 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. The Department of Science and Technology has announced the call for Expression of Interest for the preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) and guidelines for setting up Hydrogen Valley Innovation Cluster (HVIC).

Clean Hydrogen Mission, is one of the key missions under the Mission Innovation 2.0, launched on June 2, 2021, for catalysing a decade of action and investment in research, development, and demonstration to make clean energy affordable, attractive, and accessible for all. Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 23 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the European Union). Last Date for submission of EoIs is May 4, 2023. Access details here: https://l1nq.com/xbnlL.

The Maharashtra government has approved a plan to offer a yearly rent of INR 1.25 lakh to farmers who lease their land to the government for 30 years to establish solar feeders. The rent will be raised by 3% each year. The Maharashtra cabinet also decided that upon completion of the 30-year lease agreement, the land will be returned to the farmer, with the land title always remaining in the hands of the farmer.

The government's objective is to lower the cost of electricity production within the agricultural sector by implementing solar power. “At present, the rate of electricity per unit is INR 7. When we have solar energy, it will cost INR 3.30 per unit,” Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said. The state government will bear a financial burden of INR 10,000 Crores for the solar power project, which will be partially recovered by imposing higher power tariffs on domestic users and industries.

Jakson Green, a new energy transition platform backed by India-headquartered infrastructure and renewable major, Jakson Group, is looking at developing a green hydrogen fuelling station at Badarpur in New Delhi for a major power company in India.
 
The project is expected to offset 3.7 tonnes of CO2 per day once operational.

The green hydrogen fuelling station involves the establishment of a specialised and dedicated facility that will use the green energy generated on-site by a renewable hybrid to generate, compress, store, and dispense green hydrogen, utilising a hydrogen purification system. The company will also incorporate a battery energy storage system (BESS) backed renewable hybrid power plant within the station, making it a completely self-sustained facility.
 

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is planning to set up 240 MW of renewable power capacity at the cost of INR 16 billion in 2023-24.
 
The company plans to set up solar and wind energy farms in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Approximately, 50 MW solar projects are already under construction at BPCL’s facilities. The company is targeting a captive requirement for its refineries first, which is approximately 350 MW. The company will also bid for industry tenders going forward.

Haryana Power Purchase Centre (HPPC), a joint forum of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), has invited bids for supplying 500 MW of solar power from grid-connected solar projects in Haryana. The projects to be selected under this tender for an aggregate capacity of 500 MW will be installed anywhere in Haryana with a maximum of 10 MW from a single developer. The last date to submit the bids online is May 24, 2023. Bids will be opened the following day. More details can be accessed on https://www.mercomindia.com/haryana-bids-procure-500-mw-of-solar-power.

Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (MAHAGENCO) has invited bids for installing and commissioning a 62 MW grid-connected solar power project in the Akola district of Maharashtra. The last date to submit the bids online is June 1, 2023. Bids will be opened the following day. Bidders will have to submit ₹6.2 million (~$75,744) as an earnest money deposit.

The State Electricity Distribution Company of Maharashtra has also issued multiple tenders to develop solar projects of 615 MW in aggregate capacity split into four different regions of the state. The ground-mounted projects would be built on government-owned land. The tenders include projects with a capacity of 100 MW in Aurangabad-II, 76 MW, and 105 MW in Aurangabad-III, 143 MW in the Pune region, and another 191 MW in the Konkan region of the state. The last date for the submission of bids is May 8, 2023. Bids will be opened on the same day.

The world’s 60 largest banks have spent USD 5.5 trillion or INR 4,49,36,265 crore on financing fossil fuel projects since 2016, when the climate pact called Paris Agreement came into effect, according to a new report. 
The annual Banking on Climate Chaos report was released April 12, 2023 by environmental organisations like Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network etc.
 
The report’s findings indirectly highlight how phasing out fossil fuels integral to the global economy remains an uphill battle for the 190-odd signatories to the agreement. The financing contravenes these banks’ pledges to be on a path to Net Zero greenhouse emissions, as the window to avert the worst effects of the climate crisis rapidly closes.

The 10 banks that had the highest spending on fossil fuels from 2016-2022 include JPMorgan Chase & Co ($434.15 billion), Citibank NA ($332.9 billion), Wells Fargo & Company ($318.2 billion), Bank of America Corporation ($281.23 billion) and Royal Bank of Canada ($253.98 billion). Countries dominating global financial spending on the fossil fuel sector include the US, Canada, China, Japan, France & Great Britain. Banks from the US provided 28% of the total financing in 2022.

The world’s top 100 oil, gas and coal energy companies received $150 billion last year. This included $10.1 billion to TotalEnergies, $12.8 billion to TC Energy, $8.4 billion to ConocoPhillips and $8.9 billion to Saudi Aramco, four of the world’s most aggressive fossil fuel expanders, the report stated.

The US Department of Energy will provide the solar company Sunnova Energy International upto $3 billion, as a partial loan guarantee to expand clean energy access. The DOE’s Loan Programme Office aims to speed development of the clean energy sector with loans to automakers, miners, recyclers and others, many of which struggle to obtain private financing given their large capital needs. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter and Sunnova plans to issue its first securitisation under the programme in the first half of 2023.