India's subsidies to RE, EVs more than doubled in FY'22

New Delhi: India's subsidies for renewable energy and electric vehicles more than doubled in FY 2022, but it will be critical for the government to build this momentum over the coming years to reach the country's climate targets, a new study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) said on Tuesday.

The study, titled Mapping India's Energy Policy 2022: Tracking Government Support for Energy, found that subsidies for renewable energy reached Rs 11,529 crore in FY 2022, up from Rs 5,774 crore in FY 2021, while support for electric vehicles in the same period jumped 160 per cent from Rs 906 crore to a record-high Rs 2,358 crore.

This rise is the result of greater policy stability, a 155 per cent jump in the installation of solar photovoltaic, and the post-Covid economic resurgence, the study found.

Yet, to confirm this trend, the government needs to further enhance the support measures, including subsidies, public finance, and investments by publicly owned companies, over the next few years to reach 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030 and become net-zero by 2070, experts warned.

That is because in FY 2022, India still allocated four times more support to fossil fuels than clean energy, although the gap narrowed significantly since FY 2021 when support was nine times greater.