Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi participated in the World Environment Day event on 5th June 2021 via video conferencing. The event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The theme for this year’s event was ‘promotion of biofuels for a better environment’.
During the event, the Prime Minister released the “Report of the Expert Committee on Road Map for ethanol blending in India 2020-2025”. To commemorate World Environment Day, Government of India released E-20 Notification directing Oil Companies to sell ethanol blended petrol with percentage of ethanol up to 20% from 1st April 2023; and BIS Specifications for higher ethanol blends E12 & E15. These efforts will facilitate setting up of additional ethanol distillation capacities and will provide timelines for making blended fuel available across the country. This will also help increase consumption of ethanol in the ethanol producing states and the adjoining regions, before the year 2025. The Prime Minister launched a Pilot Project of E 100 dispensing stations at three locations in Pune. The Prime Minister also interacted with farmers to gain insight on their firsthand experience, as enablers under the Ethanol Blended Petrol and Compressed BioGas Programmes.
While addressing the occasion Hon’ble Prime Minister he said “India has taken another big step towards AtmaNirbhar Bharat, now ethanol has become one of the major priorities of 21st century’s India. The focus on ethanol is having a better impact on the environment as well as on the lives of farmers. The country has resolved to meet the target of 20 percent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025.
With modern ideas and modern thinking, our Government is continuously taking policy decisions in every field, be it the International Solar Alliance, realizing the vision of One Sun, One World, One Grid, or the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure initiative. India is constantly moving ahead with a big global visio. The country is also aware of the challenges that are being faced due to climate change and is also working actively, our capacity for renewable energy has increased by more than 250& in 6-7 years. India is today in the top-5 countries of the world in terms of installed renewable energy capacity. In this too, the capacity of solar energy has increased by about 15 times in the last 6 years.”
“ India is setting an example globally when it comes to protecting the environment by choosing the paths of Economy and Ecology together. Today, a large part of the country’s railway network has been electrified, airports of the country are also being rapidly made solar power based. Before 2014, only 7 airports had solar power facilities, whereas today this number has increased to more than 50.” He further added.
Hon’ble PM concluded by sharing that, “‘To protect the climate, it is very important to organize our efforts to protect the environment. When every citizen of the country will make a united effort to maintain the balance of water, air and land, then only we will be able to give a safe environment to our coming generations.”
