Circular Economy
- March 17, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Circular Economy
Subject: Environment
Section: Sustainable Development
Context- In the Budget speech this year, the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, emphasised the role of cleaner technologies such as solar energy and batteries in India’s future economic growth. In addition, she mentioned the importance of transitioning to a circular economy from the existing linear one.
Concept-
- According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) — the cumulative waste generated by India’s total installed solar capacity could be as high as 325 kilo-tonnes by 2030.
- A study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) has estimated that India would need over 5,630 GW of solar and 1,792 GW of wind energy to achieve its net-zero target in the year 2070.
Six steps to nurture a circular economy in the Indian renewable energy industry:
- First, policymakers should revise existing electronic waste management rules to bring various clean energy components under their ambit.
- These rules are based on extended producer responsibility that identifies component producers as responsible entities to manage their waste products.
- Second, dumping and burning of different components should be banned.
- Currently, in the absence of any regulation, landfilling is the cheapest and most common practice to manage renewable energy waste. However, it is not environmentally sustainable.
- Third, the renewable energy industry should invest in the research and development of recycling technologies.
- Recycling is a multistep process that includes dismantling, disassembly, and extraction.
- Fourth, there has to be a creation of innovative financing routes for waste management.
- The central government should nudge public and private sector banks to charge lower interest rates on loans disbursed for set- ting up renewable energy waste recycling facilities.
- Fifth, there needs to be an improvement in product design and quality.
- Renewable energy component manufacturers should find substitutes for toxic metals such as cadmium and lead used in their products and simplify product designs to reduce recycling steps.
- Six, the Union and State governments should set stringent quality control standards for components used in their tenders. This will prevent premature end-of-life of components, and consequent waste creation.