Launching the E-100 pilot project for production and distribution of ethanol across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is committed to meeting its target of 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025.
Saying “economy and ecology” can go hand in hand, the Prime Minister said, “The country is fast moving towards clean energy and we will see a great benefit from this, especially in the agriculture sector. Today, on world environment day, India has taken a major step in the ethanol sector by releasing a comprehensive roadmap by which we will start production of ethanol across the country and the launch of dispensing E100 from three petrol pumps in Pune. Seven years ago, there was barely any discussion on ethanol. But now, it is connected to our 21st century goals. We have set a target of 20 per cent ethanol blending by 2025. Earlier, we were aiming to hit this target by 2030. But seeing the kind of strides that the country has made in the last seven years, we have decided to reduce the timeline by five years.”
Modi launched the projects during an event organised to mark World Environment Day. Cabinet ministers Nitin Gadkari, Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Narendra Singh Tomar were also present.
Addressing a programme on #WorldEnvironmentDay. #IndiasGreenFuture https://t.co/4S0pEuKcVx
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 5, 2021
The PM added that in 2014, the country had 1.5 per cent ethanol blending, which has now gone up to 8.5 per cent. “In 2013-14, 38 crore litre of ethanol was bought as compared to over 320 crore litre today, which is about eight times more. This is worth Rs 21,000 crore, a lot of which has gone to the farmers. When we achieve 20 per cent ethanol blending, imagine how much money farmers will make,” Modi said, while adding that ethanol blending will also, to a large extent, solve the problem of agricultural waste as well as plummeting sugar rates due to excess production.
Modi said that so far, ethanol was being produced in sugar growing states, but now, it will be produced across the country as foodgrain waste distilleries and agricultural waste ethanol plants are being set up.
The Prime Minister also spoke about how India has emerged as one of the leaders in the fight for climate justice.
Highlighting the Centre’s efforts towards sustainable development, Modi added, “Climate change imposes great challenges, which we are aware of and working towards. In the last seven years, there has been a 250 per cent increase in renewable energy capacity. We also feature among the top five countries when it comes to installed capacity of renewable energy, which has grown by about 15 times. The biggest solar and wind energy hybrid plant in the country is being developed in Kutch, Gujarat. Old coal plants are being shut and awareness on single-use plastic pollution has increased. Forest cover has also grown by 15,000 square kilometres and as such, the number of tigers in the country has also gone up.”
