Himalayan nations tap only 6% clean energy: ICIMOD

NEW DELHI: Despite holding “immense renewables potential”, clean energy in the countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH), including India, accounts for only 6.1 per cent of the total primary energy supply, with hydropower remaining “hugely underexploited”, a new report has revealed.

The assessment by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), launched at the Asia-Pacific Clean Energy Week in Bangkok, noted that 635 out of the 882 gigawatts (GW) of identified hydropower potential in Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan lie in the HKH rivers. Only 49 per cent of this has been tapped, while non-hydro clean energy potential (solar and wind) in the region stands at 3 terawatts, the report said.

While the combined renewable energy targets of the HKH countries amount to 1.7 terawatts as per their climate pledges, the renewable energy potential within the region alone is over 3.5 terawatts.

Bhutan and Nepal generate all their electricity from renewables, while fossil fuels dominate in other HKH countries: 98 per cent in Bangladesh, 77 per cent in India, 76 per cent in Pakistan, 67 per cent in China, and 51 per cent in Myanmar.

Biofuels and waste make up an “alarmingly high” share of primary energy in four countries: two-thirds in Nepal, half in Myanmar, and one-quarter in Bhutan and Pakistan. This means these countries continue to rely on wood, crop residues, and dung for cooking and heating, with serious health and air quality impacts.

The study warned that climate change is disrupting hydropower through water variability, extreme weather, and infrastructure damage. Glacial lake outburst floods and other events pose “major risks” to existing and planned projects, with nearly twothirds vulnerable to glacier floods alone.

It stressed the need to integrate disaster risk strategies into renewables, adding that multipurpose dams cannot alone address growing risks of mega-floods or water wastage.

The report recommended exploring “dams equivalents,” which means measures such as efficient irrigation, urban water storage, and the adoption of solar and wind.

The study flagged multiple barriers to renewables, including high costs, limited public finance, lack of private investment, technology gaps, land constraints, and the absence of updated regulatory frameworks.

“We have extraordinary renewables potential within our region, as well as in India and China, two of the world’s pioneers in clean energy,” said coordinating lead author and energy specialist Avishek Malla. “Building on this amazing competitive advantage that Asia now holds in renewables represents a tremendous opportunity to turbocharge green economic growth, while lifting people out of poverty, and meeting our ambitious emissions-reductions targets,” he said.

Malla said countries must think beyond trade to seize the opportunity renewables hold for the HKH region; however, they need investment in infrastructure and a massive uptick in south-south skills and technology exchange.