Current Affairs 2022: Highlights of the State Energy and Climate Index Released by NITI Aayog

Gujarat tops the State Energy and Climate Index recently launched by Niti Aayog with a score of 50.1. 

Energy and climate change are the issues that are becoming significantly important for governments across the world. The use of renewable energy on a large scale and the favourable climate change is the need of the hour. Recently at COP 26 conference, held in Glasgow, UK, every participant country has promised to become a carbon-neutral country. India too promised to generate 500 GW of electricity from renewable energy resources by 2030 and to become a carbon-neutral country by 2070. To achieve this colossal ambition, NITI Aayog has come up with a data-driven energy index that encourages healthy competition among states to advance in producing renewable energy. The data also gives an insight into which states are lagging behind. 

State Energy and Climate Index 

State Energy and Climate Index is the performance chart of the states, which compiles the data of efforts made by states in the field of green energy. This is the first round of the index developed by the NITI Aayog. The SECI recognises and evaluates the attempts by the states and UTs to manage the available resources into renewable energy while taking measures to reduce their impact on the environment. The index has six parameters to measure the performance of the states. All the six parameters are divided into 27 sub-indicators. By calculating all these indicators, the results have been finalised based on size and geographical differences among the states. 

State-Level Analysis of the State Energy and Climate Index

Larger States Category

Gujarat is the best-performing state with a SECI score of 50.1. Chhattisgarh is the worst-performing state in this category with a SECI score of 31.7.

Top Three States

• Gujarat
• Kerala
• Punjab

Bottom Three states

• Jharkhand
• Madhya Pradesh
• Chhattisgarh

Smaller States Category 

Goa is the best-performing state with a score of 51.4, while Arunachal Pradesh has scored the least in this category, which is only 27.

Top Three Performers

• Goa 
• Tripura
• Manipur

Worst Three Performers

• Meghalaya
• Nagaland
• Arunachal Pradesh

Union Territories

Chandigarh has scored higher than all over the Union territories and states of India. It managed to score an astonishing 55.7. 

Top Tree Performers

• Chandigarh
• Delhi
• D&D and D&N

Bottom Three Performers

• Andaman & Nicobar 
• J&K and Ladakh 
• Lakshadweep

Indicator-wise Performance 

Parameters	Indicators	Best Performing State	Worst Performing State
DISCOM’s Performance	1.     Debt-equity ratio,  2.     AT&C losses,  3.     ACS-ARR gap, 4.     T&D losses,  5.     ToD/ToU tariffs for consumers,  6.     DBT Transfer, 7.     Open access surcharge, 8.     Regulatory Assets  9.     The complexity of Tariffs.	Punjab	J&K
Access, Affordability and Reliability of Energy	1.     Per capita energy consumption, 2.    Hours of electricity supplied in agricultural and industrial sectors, 3.     Cross-subsidization 4.     Life-line electricity  5.     Tariff	Kerala	Lakshadweep
Clean Energy Initiatives	1.     Clean cooking fuel supply,  2.     Renewable Energy penetration  3.     CNG vehicle penetration	Haryana	J&K
Energy Efficiency	1.     Energy savings in industry,  2.     Energy savings  in commercial and public Buildings,  3.     Energy intensity of GSDP	Tamil Nadu	Lakshadweep
Environmental Sustainability	1.     Energy intensity of GSDP,  2.     Utilisation of RE potential, 3.     Percentage change in forest cover, 4.     Forest carbon stock	Himachal Pradesh	Lakshadweep
New Initiatives	1.     EV penetration 2.     Availability of charging infrastructure for EVs,  3.     The proportion of consumers with smart meters	Himachal Pradesh	Lakshadweep, Andhra Pradesh, A&N

India is a country of resources and has ten per cent of the world's coal reserves and the largest thorium reserves. Despite this, 150 billion dollars worth of energy was imported by India this year itself.  The country has huge scope to harness renewable energy and it needs to be used in the right way. The biggest takeaway from the index is that some states are doing well in terms of renewable energy. Although there is still scope for improvement throughout the country but following the footprint of some states, others will also progress.

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