AI and clean energy: Prepare for the global economy that’s emerging

livemint.com:

A new government will soon take charge at the centre. Hopefully, India’s new government will have a long-term vision and the courage to think outside the box. Nothing less will do to prepare India for the emerging new global economy, driven by fundamental, disruptive technological changes that are gathering momentum.

There have been periods in history when such fundamental technological change has had a profound, pervasive impact on the way we live and work. The first industrial revolution triggered by the coal-powered steam engine, electricity, the oil-powered transport revolution and the computer and communication revolutions are illustrations of such disruptive technological change in modern history. Today, two such transformations are simultaneously underway: the energy transition and the digital transformation.

The fossil-fuel-based industrial economy had more or less run its course by the end of the 20th century, as it became evident that burning fossil fuels was leading to climate change, which could eventually make the earth uninhabitable. It took another quarter century for national governments to agree on targets to limit greenhouse gas emissions and switch to alternative technologies to arrest global warming. But action by governments to achieve those targets has proceeded at a snail’s pace, while we are already experiencing the impact of global warming in our daily lives.

Fortunately, the market and private capital have come to the rescue. As the profitability of renewables became evident, massive private investment flowed in to fast-track the transition to solar power, wind power and green hydrogen across a wide range of industries. Costs plummeted as renewable energy capacity and products were rolled out at