• Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P) is emerging as the key mechanism for multilateral financing by developed countries to support energy transition in developing countries.
• India is considered the next candidate for a JET-Partnership.
• However, India must develop a coherent domestic JET strategy to negotiate a financing deal that addresses its unique set of socio-economic challenges. 

Just energy transition

• While an energy transition to renewables typically focuses on requisite technology and finance, a just energy transition argues for people-centric measures that reduces negative impact of energy transitions on communities. 
• It involves maximizing the social and economic opportunities of climate action while minimizing and carefully managing any challenges.

JETP

• JETP is a new funding model created to help South Africa, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, and Senegal transition away from fossil fuel energy and toward clean energy to addresses social issues associated with their energy transitions.
• It ensures environmental sustainability as well as decent work, social inclusion, and poverty eradication.
• It combines technology, finance, and people to help facilitate this transition.

Challenges in India

• The power system is mainly driven by coal and is in a financial stress.
• Power distribution companies (discoms) not managing properly to raise revenues to cover power purchase costs.
• Carbon emissions are expected to peak only two decades from now.
• This necessitates the addition of both renewable energy and coal for its fast-growing electricity demand.
• Existing JET-P deals pay limited attention to intra-generational inequity.
• This includes  job losses resulting from a coal phase-down.
• More emphasis given by developed countries on coal phase-down, without adequate attention to the crucial difference in energy transition between industrialized and emerging economies.
• Difficulty in achieving cost competitiveness.
• Indian components are 20% costlier than Chinese components.
• India’s transition requires significant simultaneous growth in energy demand, nearing doubling of electricity demand by 2030.
• India cannot afford to put its development on hold while decarbonizing.

Looking ahead

• Need for customized transition plan and finance for the Indian power sector.
• Enhanced investments in a power grid to absorb an increasing share of renewable energy. 
• Acceleration in renewable energy (RE) deployment rates.
• Helps to match the pace of demand growth is critical to India’s JET. 
• Adopt shifting energy demand patterns in ways that enable faster RE capacity addition such as:
• Solarisation of agricultural electricity demand
• Electrification of diesel-powered Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)
• Decentralized RE for residential cooking and heating
• All these will help to address the rural-urban economic divide, create rural jobs, and address inter-generational and spatial inequities.
• Domestic manufacturing of clean energy components to sustain a JET, build energy self-sufficiency
• Negotiate access to markets outside India as part of a JET-Partnership, to reduce the cost gap through economies of scale.
• Optimize the use of coal-fired power plants closer to where coal is mined.
• It will lead to emissions reduction and efficient  power.

India’s energy transition is already an inspiration for many emerging economies. With India holding the G-20 presidency, it has an opportunity at hand to negotiate the JETP deal for itself while also shaping international cooperation on just energy transitions. It will help India to achieve a clean energy transition as well India can achieve sustainable goals before the target years. But JETP countries should consider the scenario of the energy sector in India.