‘Give up Subsidy’ of India among top 9 Energy Policy Lighthouses of World

World Economic Forum (WEF) has selected 9 most successful policy interventions from throughout the world based on four criteria – implementable, accountable, impactful and scalable.

‘Give up Subsidy’ campaign along with its subsidiary schemes for ensuring cooking fuel access in India has been recognized among the top nine policies of the world in the area of the energy transition by the World Economic Forum (WEF). In a recent report, titled “Energy Policy Lighthouses of World: The Little Green Book”, the WEF has also selected successful policies from China, Brazil, the USA, the UK, the European Union, Canada and other countries of the world. 

“This “little green book” offers a sample of sound policy experiences – policy lighthouses that can guide countries and markets towards new destinations. Like lighthouses, these examples are reliably visible from a distance even when little else – few other models of good policy design – are evident on the horizon. In compiling this list, we have benefitted from experiences around the world that are reflected in the network of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Energy,” said the World Economic Forum. The policies have been selected based on four criteria - implementable, accountable, impactful and scalable. “Future work from our team within the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council will expand the list, refine the criteria and offer a more detailed assessment that allows for comparisons,” Added the report. This is the first time WEF has come up with a list of successful policy models in the areas of the energy transition.  

Cooking fuel access in India – “Give up subsidy” campaign: Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL), Give It Up campaign and Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY); were collectively selected as the best model under the category ‘reconfiguration of societies and markets’ and ‘adjustment of social norms’. In the report, WEF has offered examples of each of the nine cells created by three policy goals -  Early Stage Innovation, Diffusion of New Technologies and Practices and Reconfiguration of Societies and Markets; and three types of policy instruments - Direct Intervention, Market Adjustments and Adjustment of Social Norms.

Highlighting the importance of policy in achieving the targets of climate change through the energy transition, the report said, “This transformation will not be easy, for mobilizing meaningful economic change is rarely a simple process that proceeds without opposition. It is hard to pin down how quickly it may be occurring already. However, with smart policy strategies and profound technological change, the process can run faster, at a lower cost and with more benefits to society,”. The report also emphasized the role of the energy transition in reducing emissions from about 50 billion tons of carbon dioxide today, to zero-emission in a couple of years.

Besides, the Global Cooling Prize launched in 2018 in the leadership of a global coalition led by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India and electricity auctions for renewables in India, Brazil, and South Africa have also been recognized as successful policy models in different categories. Their successful models have been followed in several African and Latin American and Caribbean countries.  

Cooking fuel access in India was delivered via four schemes with the LPG program - Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG Subsidy (DBTL); the Give It Up campaign; Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY); and the Unified Guidelines for Selection of LPG distributorships. DBTL was initially launched as a pilot program in 2013, then on 1 January 2015 was implemented nationwide, with subsequent changes and improvements from the pilot program. The Give It Up campaign was launched in March 2015, following which the PMUY was introduced in May 2016. As of September 2019, 80 million families had already been provided an LPG connection under the PMUY. As of March 2019, 42.3 million duplicate, fake/non-existent or inactive LPG connections had been blocked from receiving the subsidy, due to checks instituted under Know Your Customer and DBTL, said the report.

China’s Top Energy-Consuming Enterprises program, Government Innovations Program in the US, Climate Change Act of the UK, CO2 performance standards for new passenger cars in Europe, Carbon Tax in Canada and the US have also featured in the Energy Policy Lighthouses of World.