India, Jan. 2 -- At present, half the electricity generating capacity in India is non-fossil-fuel based - a significant achievement by all counts. But how smooth will the path be to completely phasing out dirty fuels? That remains a difficult question to answer. At COP30, India managed two things. First, the mention of a phase-out plan for fossil fuels was avoided and second, some sort of a commitment was extracted from the developed world to triple adaptation funds. For the former, India was supported by China and Russia and, of course, the petro-rich States. The US, whose "persuasive power" would have ensured no text on tripling of adaptation funding entered the final document had it been present at COP30, is on the same page as India, China, Russia and the oil-rich states on fossil fuels. About 80 countries had protested against the non-mention of fossil fuels in the final communique. They wanted some phase-out plan to be indicated. Such a plan must be linked to an outcome for it to be meaningful but, unfortunately, this link is missing. To illustrate, it can be linked to the Paris agreement of limiting a temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The final communique of COP30 still swears by the Paris agreement, but therein lies the disconnect: To achieve the target, carbon emissions must fall by about 55% by 2035. The reality, though, is that carbon emissions are still rising across the globe. We may be able to bring them down by 10-12% by 2035, provided all nations fully implement their nationally determined contributions (NDCs); this needs huge transfer of resources to developing countries - which is surely not happening at present. While renewables and non-fossil fuels are the path to a low-carbon future, the global community doesn't seem set to get rid of fossil fuels any time soon. Globally, fossil fuels account for about 40% carbon emissions from the power sector, about 21% from the transport sector and about 20% from manufacturing and industry. Renewable and nuclear energy solve the power sector emissions problem. Nuclear, of course, has its own problems, including high capital cost and dearth of nuclear fuel (at least for countries like India). Renewable generation too needs heavy doses of investment. Countries with a high potential for renewable generation, however, lack investment. Besides, growth in renewable generation has certain limitations. So, the COP28 call to triple renewable generation by 2030 is a much tougher goal than it seems. In the transport sector, adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) are a big part of the solution. EVs, unfortunately, have their own set of problems like high upfront costs, battery supply-chain issues, lack of charging infrastructure, battery safety concerns, low resale value etc. There are a few success stories such as China but, in the case of India, the penetration of electric cars is less than 3%. Let's also be cognisant of the fact that recharge of EVs, especially during non-solar hours, will necessarily increase use of fossil fuels. The industrial sector remains a hard-to-abate sector, with industries such as cement, aluminium, and iron and steel needing continuous electricity at high voltages to enable heating -- which renewables may not be able to provide. Of course, a part of the problem can be solved if the heating is provided by green hydrogen, but production of green hydrogen globally is less than 1% and the fuel remains prohibitively expensive. The short point is that getting rid of fossil fuels is easier said than done, at least in the short to medium term. This is not to say that one has to give up attempting phasing out of fossil fuels. The EU, which has led the outcry against fossil fuels, still uses about 10,600 terawatt-hours (TWH) of fossil fuels (2024) which amounts to almost 8% of the world's consumption. France and Germany alone account for about 33% of the EU's fossil fuel consumption. Given the fact that many EU countries peaked their carbon emissions long back, they should have turned net-zero by now. While phasing out of fossil fuels is a necessity, one cannot turn a blind eye on how much is practically possible in the next 20-30 years, especially since the developed world is loath to provide concessional finance for energy transition....