ESSAY WRITING COMPETITION - ESSAY 1

TOPIC: ONE STEP TOWARDS CLEAN AND GREEN ENERGY

Earth is the only known planet in the universe that is proven to support life, it is the very place where we live. Mother Nature gave birth to us, and has taken care of all our requirements, be it food, water or livelihood. She has never overlooked any of our needs, yet we destroy her, and continue to do so.

Pollution of the environment has drastically affected the climate and other natural occurrences. Recently, the untimely blooming of a plant species in October had taken place in Uttarakhand, due to a change in the climate, caused by global warming. A research study has proven, that the change in the climate caused by pollution and other factors, has made more than 11 plant species go extinct. All of this is due to the excessive use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources, and take millions of years to regenerate. Soon, the planet's fossil fuels will be exhausted, with none left for our future generations. Using these fuels is also harmful to the environment, as they release lots of pollutants, such as greenhouse gases, into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming. However, using fossil fuels isn't the only way of producing energy. There are many more, harmless methods that can be implemented, which will surely improve the degrading environment. The type of energy being referred here is clean and green energy.

Green energy is any type of energy that is generated from natural resources, like sunlight, wind or water. The key with these resources are that they don't harm the environment in any way. Clean energy is referred to non polluting energy sources like wind and solar power. This means it is produced with little-to-no environmental impact and does not contribute to any major environmental damage unlike fossil fuels. Since all of them are replenished constantly in nature, they won't run out. Implementing the use of this energy is extremely beneficial. Clean energy provides a variety of environmental and economic benefits, including a reduction in air pollution. A diverse clean energy supply also reduces the dependence on imported fuels, and the associated financial and environmental costs this causes. Other industrial benefits of implementing clean energy is the creation of jobs to develop, manufacture it, and install the clean energy resources of the future.

The government commits to provide clean and green energy at a cheaper rate. As said by the Environment minister, the government endeavours to meet maximum energy requirement by tapping renewal energy resources and, to achieve the target of clean energy in a time bound manner, various policies and regulations are being constantly updated. Promotions of projects regarding the better production of such energies also strengthens the commitments of the Government of India towards International Agreements, and one of the National Commitment pledged in Paris in 2015 was to have 40% of the power from renewable resources by 2030. It is noteworthy that currently India has over achieved the target and is well on track to ensure that more than 50% of our installed capacity will come from renewable sources by 2030. The government has prepared a fresh policy for the promotion of electric vehicles. According to the policy, the government will first begin creating favourable ecosystems in nine polluted cities with a population of over 4 million, and gradually move to cities with populations of over 1 million. We can promote the use of clean and green energy by implementing it ourselves. As the sun is one of the most powerful energy sources in the world, we can embrace solar-powered technologies. Nowadays, we can get solar-powered vehicles, water heaters, and panels to distribute electricity at our home. Such technologies can be expensive, but are highly durable, and a one-time investment at best. Geothermal heat pumps can be very helpful during winters, as it steals some of the temperature underground and provides heat to one's house.

Implementing this use of energy has become the need of the hour. It is high time that we start living sustainably by using the gifts given to us by Mother Nature. She gave life to us, and our small steps can help save the world.