India looks to western nations to finance ambitious solar rollout

India has approved in principal an ambitious National Solar Mission to generate 200GW of the country's energy from sunlight by 2050, but it apparently expects substantial funding to come from western nations.

A final draft of the plan dated 29 April 2009 – a copy of which has been posted on the Greenpeace India website – had outlined government spending of $22bn (£10.9bn) for solar subsidies, rural electrification projects and research and development grants.

As the country only has about 3MW of installed solar capacity now, the relatively small size of current government funding for the sector had led analysts to comment earlier this year that international support would need to come into play.

Now Indian media have reported that the national climate change council amended the plan earlier this week, scrapping proposals for government funding in place of technological and financial backing from developed nations.

"In order to achieve its renewable energy targets, the Indian government expects international financing as well as technology at an affordable cost," Leena Srivastava of The Energy and Resources Institute of New Delhi told The Guardian earlier this week.

Industry observers say that India may use the solar plan as a bargaining chip during the UN climate change talks in December, in a bid to deflect what it perceives as "pressure" from the west to set an emissions reduction target.

The prime minister's special envoy on climate change, Shyam Saran, said the government also planned to cut carbon emissions through fuel efficiency and the use of agricultural waste as biomass energy to electrify remote villages.

Any further measures and targets demanded by developed countries as part of the Copenhagen process would be taken only if full funding and technological support was provided, added Saran.

He was sceptical that an across-the-board agreement would be reached during the Copenhagen talks, as western countries seemed unwilling impose lifestyle changes on their citizens.

"We can't be ambitious if we all protect our turf," he told the Daily Telegraph yesterday. "If Europe or the US increased fuel prices by $1 a litre, it would make a substantial change in private transport, a major source of emissions. If you say it's not politically possible but tell me not to give electricity to [rural] villages because it will cause climate change, how do I sell that here?"