Lok Sabha Passes Energy Conservation Amendment Bill 2022

The onslaught of climate change is forcing countries to reduce their carbon footprints and move towards clean forms of energy sources to decarbonize their economies to protect the planet from the rising temperatures. The Lok Sabha (House of Commons) of the Parliament has passed the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, in a bid to promote non-fossil fuels like biomass, ethanol and green hydrogen with a force of law.

Under the new law, buildings that take a power connection load of 100KW to meet their power requirements, will mandatorily have to meet their needs from renewable sources of energy.

Power and MNRE Minister RK Singh, who had tabled the Bill in the Lok Sabha last Wednesday, termed the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 as, ‘the Bill for the future.’ The industrial companies and units could be penalized or punished if their compliance doesn’t follow the consumption norms. Such norms will be listed once the law is enacted completely.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill declares, “With the passage of time, and in the context of the energy transition with special focus on the promotion of new and renewable energy and National Green Hydrogen Mission, a need has arisen to further amend the said Act to facilitate the achievement of ‘Panchamrit’ as five nectar elements presented by India in Conference of Parties -26 in Glasgow last year.”

The new law will also establish Carbon Markets and specify a carbon credit trading scheme.

The Bill looks to encompass large residential buildings also within the fold of the Energy Conservation scheme of things. This empowers the state governments to reduce down the load thresholds. It also furthers the scope of Energy Conservation Building Code and also speaks of consumption standards in terms of area.