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Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar addressed the Second meeting of the High-Level Coalition on Health and Energy today virtually from Nirman Bhawan. The first High-Level Coalition on Health and Energy was convened by the WHO Director-General in 2019 with the goal of strengthening the cooperation between health and energy sectors, increasing political momentum, spurring investments, mobilizing public support, and driving practical solutions.
Thanking the WHO Director General for highlighting and discussing the key priorities action for strengthening the cooperation between the health and energy sectors, she appreciated the efforts taken for holding the second meeting of the High-Level Coalition or Health and Energy Platform of Action.
She stated that “India firmly believes that these are the most critical areas which need more active discussion along with the identification of concrete actions to accelerate clean cooking and improve the electrification of healthcare facilities in the countries.”
Highlighting Government of India’s vision of attaining 450GW of renewable generation by 2030, she stated that “constantly moving towards health centre electrification by combining health-related policies and energy-related policies with a target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022.” “India is already ahead of what “we pledged in our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)” and added that, “already 39% of our installed capacity is from non-fossil based sources and by 2022 we will reach our target of 40%”, she further added.
India has also expanded its renewable energy programs and energy efficiency programs to efficiently use the energy through various innovative policy measures under the overall ambit of the Energy Conservation Act 2001.
Underscoring steps taken at various fronts, the Union Minister of State informed that India has attained SDG target 7.1 of providing Universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services by 2030 by improving the electrification of 99.99% of the households. Also, India has successfully electrified 95% of district hospitals and around 90% of sub-divisional hospitals with a three-phased power supply. Cumulatively, almost 75% of the health centres in the country have been electrified with a cumulative solar capacity of 3.5MW.
She further informed that in the context of “Green and Climate Resilient Healthcare Facilities”, India is a signatory to the Malé Declaration in 2017 and has agreed to promote climate-resilient health- care facilities to be able to withstand any climatic event and ensure that essential services such as water sanitation, waste management, and electricity are functional during such events.
Highlighting key focus areas, she exhorted that urgent action is needed to scale up access to clean cooking solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on health, gender equality, and climate, among others, and ultimately to minimize the future negative effects of the climate crisis thereby facilitating the effective enjoyment of the human right to health.
She emphasized on developing vibrant partnerships and create synergy with other missions and ensure that health is adequately represented in the climate change agenda across the globe. With such collaborations and collective action of this coalition group, a greener planet through the means of clean and green energy can be achieved.
Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO, Director General, Dr Naoko Yamamoto, WHO, Assistant Director General, Dr Maria Neira, Director, Environment, Climate and Health, WHO and Dr Kandeh Yumkella, Member of Parliament, Sierra Leone were also present in the meeting.