Renewable energy resources, policies and gaps in BRICS countries and the global impact

Abstract

This paper presents comparative yet extensive analysis of existing non-conventional renewable resources, energy policies and gaps in BRICS countries. An intelligent transformation to green economy to maintain natural resources is noted. Brazil has stable energy policies and is the leading producer of biofuels following hydropower until 2014 but supported wind and solar power development by tendering specific tariffs for energy generation from solar and wind. Russia needs improvement in its legal and regulatory framework with more incentives in energy policies. China is improving upon wind and hydropower but it needs strong policy measures to put cap on increased CO₂ emissions. India needs revision in energy policy and requires extra incentives and consumer specific energy policies for research-infrastructure and energy generation technologies. South Africa requires lessons to increase renewable energy and reduce coal mining. Moreover, BRICS countries need to redefine their energy policies based upon their existing geographical, economical, societal and environmental conditions which will help in shaping global energy policies and more financial stability. This paper recognizes the potential of BRICS to reshape the global system paralleled with minimizing CO₂ emissions. The concerted role of BRICS needs to be recognized as the leading contributor of global renewable capacity where the developed world is geared and busy to address the environmental issues.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

BRICS / CO₂ emissions / energy / policies / renewable

1 Introduction

Energy security is essential for socio-economic growth of every country. Renewable energy generation and advancement is an impressive way to address energy crisis. BRICS refer to five developing countries namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which came together and are included in top 10 global energy consumers that are home to 40% World’s population. BRICS are at the center of major transformation and their economies are increasingly rising and flourishing. Figure 1 shows the total energy generated and consumed during 2010–2016 in BRICS countries [1] which reflects the large differences between the energy generated and the energy required in India and China. It can be noted that Brazil and South Africa are able to strike a balance between energy production and consumption per capita. Russia has a surplus production of energy to fulfill its requirements. These variations are caused by the consequence of technological progress, population size, geographical location, and several other factors. Moreover, the input of all of the so-called energy sustained countries toward the CO₂ emissions mitigation is important. It is generally acknowledged that these countries have the potential to reshape the international system. BRICS countries are enriched with mineral resources, low cost labor and technological innovations [2]. India and China have a large population and a high energy demand and, therefore, produce goods at a low cost [3]. Russia is a resource-rich country and leading manufacturer of major commodities such as steel and iron, who exports goods to other nations but its primary source of electricity is from natural gas (50.2%) in 2016 [2,3]. Brazil has massive agricultural resources, mineral reserves, and hydroelectric resources that produce clean energy [4]. But it faces a strong refusal from international organizations regarding insufficient environmental safety policies [4]. In 2010, a report by the UNEP acclaimed that South Africa could get 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 [5]. Subsequently South Africa sets up the target of making its renewable power capacity reach 42% of the total by 2030 [5].

In 2014 BRICS countries together were reported to contribute 38% of the total carbon emissions [6], the biggest CO₂ emission share of nearly 24% coming from China, followed by India [6]. Now, China appears to become the world’s largest energy consumer and India will be the principal driver within Asia till 2020 as reported [7]. Brazil is the major dealer of oil and the world’s sixth largest producer by 2035. However, none of these countries are members of most prominent International Energy Institution (IEA) [7]. The high potential and various resources suggest that BRICS countries can be leaders of the renewable energy sectors. However to achieve clean growth and facing challenges of environmental issues, health issues, population growth, and energy security, their previous project outcomes and current energy policies therein require to be re-evaluated.

This paper summarizes the role of BRICS in global power generation. An attempt is made to analyze the existing energy policies BRICS countries for renewable energy growth with an aim to identify gaps that may be addressed in the policies to be framed in future so as to increase energy from renewable sources.

2 Renewable energy resources in BRICS countries

Recently a plethora of information has been made available by the policy makers and the people working in the energy sector from well-developed as well as from BRICS countries. The status of different energy resources and their utilization for energy generation of BRICS countries (Fig. 2) as per 2016 literature is summarized below.

2.1 Brazil

Brazil is the sixth largest shareholder of renewable energy globally [3]. Brazil has achieved high shares of renewable energy, majorly hydropower, contributing to 90% of the electricity demand of the country [8] because of the presence of Itiapu Dam, the second largest hydroelectric facility worldwide. However, the construction of hydro dams has severe adverse environmental and social impacts. The Brazilian government is on a green economy path and the total energy generation from renewable reached 75% in 2014 [6] and 84 GW from hydropower alone [6]. Deforestation of the Amazon forest directly impacted local communities and the country faces a strong resistance from international organizations for its insufficient environmental safety policies [6–8]. Figure 2 indicates that Brazil majorly uses oil, hydropower, and renewable sources for its energy generation. But the consumption of energy from natural gas and oil was reduced in 2016 compared to 2015 and the share of energy consumption from renewable sources increased [1,9]. In 2014, wind power generation remained relatively low, at just under 6 GW in Brazil, ranking 10th in the world. In 2015 Brazil majorly contributed to biofuel production among BRICS as bio-ethanol by using bagasse and cogeneration product [1,9].

2.2 Russia

Russia is the largest country of world according to land area, enriched with mineral resources and small population size. It majorly exports oil, natural gas, and coal across the world. Its natural resources accounts for 19% of the total world’s coal resources, 23% of the total world’s natural gas reserves, and 8% of the global natural uranium production [10]. The policy document of Russia 2009, “The Energy Strategy up to 2030” explained the importance for the development of renewable energy technology with 4.5% target to reach in 2020 [11]. Unfortunately the country utilizes natural gas majorly and up to 2014, it was observed to rely 80%–85% on non-renewable sources (Fig. 2) with less than 6% renewable energy in total energy generation [6]. The regulatory framework had been already discussed in the State Duma and the Federation Council since 1999 for non-renewable energy sources [11]. The potential of renewable energy in Russia is estimated to be 189–224 Mtoe per year [12,13]. However, 2016 did not witness any major changes in renewable energy generation in Russia [1,9]. Hydropower contributed about 170 TWh in Russia which was one of the largest in renewable power [14]. The primary energy consumption by fuel was reduced from 681.7 Mtoe (28541.4156 PJ) to 673.9 Mtoe (28214.8452 PJ) in 2016 contributed mainly by reduction in consumption of natural gas (Fig. 2) [1,9]. Power plants from solar are very poorly developed in the country with first plant having opened in Belgorod Oblast in November 2010. In its energy policy of 2000, Russia planned to increase its solar capacity [14,15].

2.3 India

India recognized the importance of renewable energy sources in early 1970s as sustainable energy source. Recently energy generation from renewable sources has gained more importance because of the high prices of coal in domestic market, heavy dependence on petroleum fuels imports and volatility of world oil market, growing population, and energy demand [16]. The country is mostly dependent on coal and oil (Fig. 2). The primary energy consumption shares of different energy sources has increased in 2015 to 46% of coal, 5% of natural gas 22% of oil, and 26% of renewable energy (non-hydro renewable energy, hydroelectric, and nuclear) (Fig. 2). India has the fifth largest wind sector with an installed wind power capacity of 22.5 GW in the world, along with just over 3 GW of solar energy by the end of 2014 [6]. The Indian government has a 100 GW target for solar power plants by 2022, of which 40 GW is distributed to rooftop solar panels [6]. Research and development in biofuels production is also proposed and carried out in the 2011–2016 Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Non Renewable Energy (MNRE) of India [17]. The Indian biomass policy is based solely on non-food feed stocks to be raised on degraded or wastelands that are not suited to agriculture, thus avoiding a possible conflict of fuel vs. food security faced by other countries. The country’s policy perspective has resulted in an enhanced support to the sugarcane bagasse based co-generation, improved biomass combustion technologies, biomass densification, charcoal making, and decentralized electricity generation from biomass worldwide.

2.4 China

China is growing economically and advancing in most of the sectors at the cost of rising global warming and other environmental issues. The country has huge coal and oil reserves and mostly dependent on thermal power for meeting the energy demand [18]. The primary energy demand of China will reach 4.2 billion tons by 2020, and fossil fuel will only meet 70% of the increased energy demand [6]. Beyond 2013 China has also increased its shares from renewable and nuclear energy (Fig. 2). Renewable energy accounted for 22% (2014) of the total energy generation [6]. The country has a solar PV capacity of 28 GW, putting it in second place globally after Germany [6]. It has the third largest wind power worldwide, producing 114 GW which is quite impressive. The power generated from geothermal energy accounted for 30.2 MW at the end of 2014 [19]. The primary energy consumption by renewable energy has increased from 2625 PJ to 3600 PJ (Fig. 2), suggesting an increase in renewable energy share with an increasing demand and corresponding production in China [1,9].

2.5 South Africa

South Africa entered the BRICS in 2010. It has a much smaller population and economy among this group. It is enriched with natural reserves such as coal, natural gas, and mineral reserves like gold, diamonds, and platinum with excellent infrastructure, well established corporate footprints, and advanced functioning regulatory frameworks [20]. Over the past 15 years, 92% of the power supply of South Africa was met by the conventional resources [6]. In 2014–2016, South Africa mostly used coal (71%) for energy generation and shares of renewable energy is only 2% [1,9,20] (Fig. 2). The reason for this is that the renewable energy importance and transition in South Africa began only in 2014. The installed solar PV capacity increased from 147 MW to 922 MW and onshore wind power installations developed from a mere 10 MW in 2013 to 570 MW by 2015 [20]. It has a setup target of reaching new installed capacity of 17.8 GW renewable energy by 2020 [20].

3 Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and renewable energy growth in BRICS

The environmental concerns and rising CO₂ emission rates drive investments and plans in energy generation from renewable sources [22,23]. The development speed of BRICS forces them on the path of more industrial setups and more energy consumption, resulting in more emission of carbon. Brazil’s carbon emissions majorly come from agriculture, change in land-use pattern, and deforestation [24]. Electricity accounts for a minimum amount of its total CO₂ emissions, the majority of which is coming from large-scale deforestation in Amazon rainforest to increase area for agriculture and human settlement. Its agriculture has provided employment and helped in economic growth but at the expense of raising CO₂ emissions. The total energy consumption in Brazil has risen by more than 50%, making it rank in top 10 greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters worldwide [6,21]. Figure 2 shows that the CO₂ emission levels of Brazil have raised by almost 50% and 582 MtCO₂ emission was reported in 2014 [1,6,9]. Unlike Brazil, Russia has natural gas reserves and is less dependent on coal for energy generation [25–27]. 1657 MtCO₂ emissions was reported for Russia near 2014 end (Fig. 2) which was quite high and not focusing much on renewable energy. The commercial energy in India comes majorly from coal, which increased to 46% in 2015 than that of 42% in 2014 [6]. The energy reserves available in India (Fig. 2) suggested that coal, natural gas, and oil had the major share with a rise of 2088 MtCO₂ emission in 2014 [21]. This may reflect that CO₂ emissions are steadily rising along with economic growth in India, but still relatively lower CO₂ emissions per capita [26,27]. CO₂ emissions from China have increased by 332% but it is evident that country is working hard to increase renewable energy generation and reducing its reliance on thermal power [6]. China’s decreasing energy intensity and CO₂ intensity have resulted in being able to achieve a relatively high economic growth with a lowered energy input and minimum CO₂ emissions [26].South Africa mostly uses its coal reserves for energy generation [7] and 452 MtCO₂ emissions observed in 2014 (Fig. 2) [1,9,21]. The country has a tremendous potential for renewable energy generation and the government has set target to install renewable energy generation units so as to reduce 10–25 MtCO₂ emissions by 2020 [21,28].

4 Understanding environmental and social factors influencing renewable energy in BRICS countries

4.1 Population and energy requirements

Energy requirements depend upon the population of that country. Among BRICS, China (1357 millions) and India (1211 millions) are densely populated countries. Therefore, the energy demands of these countries are high compared to those of Brazil, Russia, and South Africa. Table 1 lists that energy consumption per capita (765 kWh) differs as densely populated country like India has less energy consumption per capita compared to other BRICS countries with high energy demand which can only be met by renewable energy generation (Table 1).

4.2 Geographical area and location

The development in renewable energy also depends upon the present geographical location of each country. BRICS countries differ in their geographical area, location, geological and climatic conditions based upon which they have different types of forests, coal reserves, natural gas and oil reserves, and other natural resource availability in that country. Table 1 also shows that BRICS countries are located geographically on different longitude and latitude.

4.3 Natural resources available

Brazil is a pioneer in hydropower generation among BRICS and fully utilized its reserves to produce hydropower. To encounter energy crisis during drought, they have deploy biofuels. Russia has natural gas and oil reserves which are abundant to accomplish their energy demand. Therefore, it is less attentive toward renewable energy. India has a continuously rising population, hence it has more energy demand but it faces a big gap in energy demand and supply ratio. Therefore India is overexploiting its natural reserves like coal to satisfy the rising demand. China is a rapidly growing country among BRICS on expense of utilization of their natural reserves. South Africa is rich in coal mines. It exploits them for cheap energy generation with sustainable supply. It has less concern for pollution coming from thermal generations. Renewable sources are less important to the country for energy generation. South Africa has recently started paying attention to environmental pollution in its policy.

4.4 Prices (coal, oil, natural gas and electricity)

The rising energy demand among BRICS countries leads to more exploitation of coal, natural gas etc. Policies are formed to increase the prices of hydrocarbons and promote the use of renewable sources to conserve non-renewable sources and reduce CO₂ emissions. Non-conventional renewable energy resources (NCRES) in the short-term generate a decrease in electricity prices [27] due to low marginal costs as compared to conventional resources but installation of solar, wind, biomass and hydro plants are also costly and essential to be incentive based. Among BRICS countries, China provides most of the subsidies and incentives for energy generation from solar, wind and biomass (Table 1). In this manner, the cost of setting new renewable power projects can be minimized. Brazil mainly offers subsidies and tax exemptions for biofuels generation and use. All BRICS countries except Russia offer research and development (R&D) funds for increasing energy generation.

4.5 Welfare

Energy crisis also represents economic growth and human health. More incentives and schemes to increase renewable energy generation help to improve human and environmental health thereby, making human lives healthier and causing reduction in air and soil related pollution. By addressing environmental issues and health concerns using NCRES technologies, the health problems caused by CO₂ emissions may be reduced and hence the expenditure for it is lowered. Higher income countries are investing a good amount to increase renewable energy generation as they can easily afford installation and operating cost [22]. Advancements in renewable sectors will also open opportunities of employments for human welfare. China is the largest employer providing jobs to 3.4 million people; Brazil is the second larger employer with almost 1 million employed, and India employs 0.5 million people in the renewable energy industry [29].

4.6 GHG’s emissions and carbon footprint

To address climate change and green-house gases emissions, it is necessary to utilize renewable resources. Brazil has shown sustainable rise in renewable energy generation. But, the country is facing agitation against deforestation of lands which is maximally contributing to GHG’s emission. Russia has the lowest CO₂ emissions among BRICS [6,21]; yet it needs to stop its excess carbon emissions from thermal power. India’s carbon emission rate is constantly increasing as the country is continuously exploiting its natural reserves to fulfil its rising energy demand. Land deforestation brought the growing environmental concern to serve food and housing for growing population. The country has started using alternative energy sources to address environmental concerns. Though China is one of the major GHG contributors as per 2015–2016 data, it has recently deployed ‘Carbon Trading System’ to cut down GHG emissions and spends huge amounts of money on renewable power generation and puts tax on industries emitting carbon more than the maximum targeted value [38]. South Africa is the lowest GHG contributor among BRICS.

4.7 Regulatory framework and research infrastructure

Renewable energy support schemes and operating subsidies are changing the production of renewable energy into profitable business. BRICS countries are exploring and accumulating experience in the renewable energy area. Brazil is maximally producing biofuels and hydropower for energy generation [2]. From Table 1, it can be observed that Brazil is offering levy on 61.5% PIS (Program of Social Integration) and 28.32% COFINS (Contribution for the Financing of Social Security) rate on gross revenues from biodiesel rates. Some problems have inevitably appeared in the process of development in the context of Russia and South Africa. The obstacle behind the development of the biofuel sector in Russia and South Africa is the lack of coherent policy and regulation. Russia has abundant natural gas and oil reserves while, South Africa has wide coal reserves which are cost efficient for economically viable energy generation and therefore they pay less attention to renewable energy policies. On other hand, China is attentive toward developing research infrastructure and providing funds for more and economically feasible energy generation from non-conventional sources to reduce CO₂ emissions [19]. Although India has abundant coal reserves [16], its energy demand is more than the total energy generated due to the rapidly increasing population and failure of energy policies prepared to face energy crisis and climate change. Renewable energy is very important for the country to meet the energy demand.

5 Policies of BRICS countries for energy generation from renewable energy resources

The energy policies adopted by BRICS in respect to energy generation from various renewable sources are listed as Table 2.

5.1 Energy generations from biofuels

The Brazil Bio-ethanol and Biodiesel Law 8723 of 1993 established a blending mandate of 22% for bio-ethanol. In 2015, the 27% (E27) bio-ethanol blending requirement was set for regular gasoline [30,31]. At subnational level, for example, Curitiba, as its Biocidade program, has included buses that run with 100% biodiesel in municipal fleet.

The Indian policy for biofuels proposes 20% blending of biofuels for biodiesel and bio-ethanol by 2017 and availability in market. Energy policies mainly aim to use waste lands and cultivation of shrubs and trees bearing nonedible oil seeds for production of biofuels. Presently, the country is producing bio-ethanol mainly from molasses which is the by-product of the sugarcane industry [32].

China’s transport sector related policies aim to substitute petrol and diesel with biofuel. The policy also provided vehicle and fuel taxation, incentives and subsidies for energy-efficient vehicles, e.g., hybrid electric vehicles, buses, official vehicles. Municipal service vehicles (e.g., garbage trucks) are subsidised depending on the length and type of the vehicle, its fuel-saving potential, and the ratio of electric motor and battery type [33,34].

The government of Russia launched a national program to increase biofuel production and installing 30 new biofuels plants [15]. Other projects mostly use timber by-products to produce bio-butanol.

5.2 Energy generation from hydropower

Brazil promoted small hydropower plants for energy generation through its Act No. 10, 438/02 in 2002, via the Brazilian Program of Incentives for Alternative Electricity Sources (PROINFA) which is its first legal measure to use Non-Conventional Renewable Energy Sources (NCRES) (Table 2) [30,31].

In India the ‘New Hydropower Policy’ was proposed in 2008 to encourage both private and public sectors in difficult and remote locations with exemptions to the developer for merchant sale of 40% sellable energy from hydropower generations. An additional of 12% free power is provided to the state where the hydropower plant is located. Each project affected family is supposed to get 100 units electricity each month from the total electricity generated from hydropower for 10 years [32,35].

China’s 12th Five Year Plan in 2010 encouraged the use of grid-based small hydro projects with special feed in tariff on electricity purchase price to fulfil demand of market [33,34].

South Africa planned the use of on-grid small hydropower projects for energy generation in its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for 2010–2030 with feed in tariff of 0.96/kWh for less than 10 MW and target of 2.6 GW electricity from large scale hydropower units [36].

The government of Russia has set a state target of small hydropower unit installations of 124 MW by 2016–2017 which would subsequently be increased to 159 MW by 2020 so as to achieve a national electricity production share target of 2.5% (2009) or 4.5% (2020) [14,39].

5.3 Energy generation from solar power

The Act Ministerial Decree 538 of Brazil [30,31] started a national program for distributed generation (DG) of energy called ProGD, specially focusing on solar photovoltaic (PV). A federal program fund was also initiated for people in 2009 called “My house, My life” which already installed 183000 units of solar power for water heating and 1000units of solar PV systems in 2.2 million houses [30,31]. From the year 2012, in the second and third phase of the program, water heating through solar systems was made compulsory in houses designed for people within an income of up to $1600 [31].

India has proposed and is working on various policies for energy generation from solar. One of its successful programs is Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) proposed in 2008 but launched in 2010, to become global leader in solar energy and deploy 20000 MW of solar power capacity by 2022. JNNSM has set targets in three phases: Phase 1 (up to early 2013), Phase 2 (2013–2017) and Phase 3 (2017–2022) [34,37].The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has also proposed a program for “Development of Solar Cities” to support 60 cities/towns installed with solar street lights, traffic signals, blinkers, power packs/inverters. Another program “AkshayUrja” promoted establishment of shops in every district of the state for easy access to green energy products and after sales services. Subsidies are provided for purchase of solar PV equipment and special tariffs are also given for solar projects as is observed in Table 1.

The solar water heating policy for China buildings as tabulated in Table 2 regulates the installation of solar water heater with an allowance of 13% on the product price for 26–250 million m², and 50% incentives on the total investment for grid-connected solar projects. According to the 13th Five Year Plan (2016–2020), Concentrated Solar Power feed in tariff (CSP-FiT) development will be considered case by case, through public tender, by setting national FiT benchmark or through regionally differentiated FiT [38].

South Africa under its IRP plan for 2010–2030 launched renewable energy independent power producer procurement program (REI4P) to install 17.8 GW electrical capacity in South Africa from solar and others by 2030 [19]. Special tariffs are provided for solar PV at 2.10/kWh ZAR (Table 1) [36].

The government of Russia has set its target for installations of solar energy power plants of 270 MW by 2020 under its program of “Energy Efficiency and Energy Development” [14].

5.4 Energy generation using wind power

Policies like PROINFA of Brazil support energy generation from wind turbines. The country also has wind farms installed in the best sites of the world with import tax exemptions of 2%–10% on wind power equipment [30,31].

India’s strategic plan of 2011–2017 by MNRE regulated wind energy assessment supporting the development of transmission and evacuation infrastructure for off-shore wind with different incentives and tariff (Table 1) [33,35].

China has industrial policies which provide tariffs and subsidies for infrastructure development for wind-based energy generations. Four FiTs for onshore wind regions are defined with benchmark FiT of 0.49, 0.52, 0.56 and 0.61 CNY/kWh respectively, providing the projects implemented in 2017 (Table 1) [38].

South Africa’s current plan i.e., Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2010–2030 encourages the use of wind as an energy generation source and provided 50% allowance on assets for wind turbines installation (Table 1) [20,41].

Russia proposed to install wind power generation of 1000 MW by 2020 to achieve 10% increase in renewable energy from 100 MW in 2014 to 1000 MW in 2020 [14].

5.5 Nuclear power for generation of energy

The 13th Five Year Plan of China is committed to increase its nuclear generating capacity to 58 GW by 2020 by accelerating large commercial processing nuclear plants and strengthening the security system. National development and reform commission (NDRC) set a wholesale nuclear power price of CNY 0.43 per kWh (7 US cents/kWh) in 2013 for the safety and development of nuclear power sector [38]. In India, not much focus is being given to nuclear power generation in its policies [6,17]. Russia however, has 8% of the uramum reserves being used for nuclear power generation [10].

5.6 Energy generation from biomass

The Brazil Reserve Energy Auction (2008) had installed 96 biomass units of 5234.6 MW. The Alternative Energy Sources Auction (2015) had installed 29 Biomass units of 323 MW [30,31].

India in its strategic plan of 2011–2017 regulated promotion and establishment of biomass gasifiers using surplus biomass wastes (esp. rice husk, pine needles) for fulfilling electricity demand of industry, especially that of rice mills and rural electrification [17]. Special incentives are also provided for gasification projects (Table 1).

The 12th Five Year Plan (2011–2015) of China encourages development plan for forest biomass energy industry and policy for waste to energy generation (Table 1) [33] and different subsidies and incentives under this plan are provided, as listed in Table 2.

The South Africa REI4P provides different subsidies and tariffs for biomass related projects as per policy by 2010–2030 (Table 2) [36].

5.7 Energy generation from geothermal power

China’s 12th Five Year Plan focuses on exploitation and utilization of geothermal energy [19].

In Russia, the utilization of geothermal energy is especially important for heat supply to northern territories of the country. The Krasnodar region has a large geothermal power potential with an aggregate of 238 MW heat capacity and set to provide 10% heat and 3% energy demand by 2020 [15]. Kamchatka is the most important gigantic power station in Mutnovsky of 62 MW capacity for geothermal energy generation.

6 Reduction in carbon emissions and energy policies of BRICS

As discussed earlier in Sections 4 and 5 and as per Fig. 2, it is obvious that carbon emissions have been reduced with new energy policies coming from BRICS countries over the years. To achieve more reduction in energy consumption by BRICS countries, it is important to address the energy policies in detail identifying gaps therein.

Under the National Policy on Climate Change (Law 12.187/09), Brazil has pledged reduction of 38.9% carbon emissions by 2020 and several taxes on CO₂ emissions to encourage the use of renewable energy [24].

The carbon policy of China was announced in March 2011 to develop carbon-emission trading pilot projects to support its 12th Five Year Plan carbon (FYP) intensity target for development of Certified Emission Reduction trading scheme to set a cap on carbon emissions for the launch of their trading schemes and GHG’s control [33]. The CO₂ emissions cap is 660 MtCO₂ compared to the 2007 emissions of 508 MtCO₂ [24,34,40–42].

The Indian government announced tax on coal and charged 50 Rs (US$0.81) per tonne on both domestic and imported coal. This cornerstone regulatory policy acted as a sort of carbon tax. In April 2011, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is headed by the Indian Prime Minister, approved National Clean Energy Fund for entrepreneurial ventures and research for renewable energy [37].

South Africa, under its Integrated Resource Plan, launched REI4P for reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from 912 g/kWh to 600 g/kWh by 2030 by installing 17.3 GW of small renewable projects for solar, wind, biogas and biomass [20,36].

Russia’s pledge is not projected to lead to substantial emission reductions from 2.4 to 2.8 GtCO₂e by 2020. Russia is also committed to bring down GHG emissions of 15%–25% relative to 1990 levels by 2020 resulting in a target of 2.5–2.8 GtCO₂e. The Russian government published guidelines in 2009 for enhancing energy efficiency of renewable-based electricity through 2020 by increasing 4.5% share of renewable energy sources by 2020. Russia policy also needs to look into the emissions from gas flaring, although a 5% limit for gas flaring has been set for 2012 and subsequent years. Full implementation of this law would result in reductions between 130 and 230 MtCO₂e in 2020 [24].

7 Global power production and BRICS

Presently BRICS countries contribute a major part in global renewable energy generation in 2015 and become important for trade off purpose. A big progress was noted in 2015 with a 25% increase over 2014 in renewable energy generation [43]. A major jump was observed in global solar PV capacity reaching 227 GW. The top 5 countries of 2015 with renewable power capacity in GW include China (496)>US (202)>Germany (97)>India (83)>Japan (65) (Fig. 3). Europe’s leading bio-power producer, Germany, had a constant capacity in 2015 of 7.1 GW, half of which was derived from biogas plants. In 2015 Brazil was leading in bio-ethanol production from bagasse and cogeneration products and provided the second biggest hydroelectric facilities globally. But the country faced criticism for several negative environmental and social impacts as land deforestation and hydro dams’ construction raised the CO₂ emissions. Russia has natural gas and oil-based power generation with less than 1% share in the total renewable power globally with no specific subsidies and tariffs for different sectors. The country is drawing lessons from experienced partner, Iceland, to encourage energy generation from geothermal energy. Presently, China is the strongest economic power among BRICS, encouraging energy generation from all renewable sources. South Africa is a recent admission and needs to pay attention to all sectors of NCRES for achieving its target of 2030. Recently, India has increased its share of energy generation from solar, wind, hydro, and biomass by 26% and become the fifth biggest producer of wind energy. Indian energy generation majorly depends upon coal and oil but volatility in oil market, energy demand and prices shifted the country’s focus on renewable energy. Now the country is targeting renewable capacity installations from solar and biomass by 2030. However the focus on install projects for energy generation from nuclear and geothermal is still lacking.

It is clear that governments and governance of BRICS countries have advanced in their agenda for a green global economy. Regardless of how countries view green economy concept, transformation into a cleaner, more efficient production and development with a minimum negative effect on the environment is imperative. Policies and plans that focus on lower carbon emissions are now in frame drawing lessons learnt from other non-BRICS countries. There are obvious trade-offs in transforming old methods of production using newer, more expensive (in the short-term) technologies. However, the entire exercise has led to an overall increase in energy production through renewable energy resources in BRICS countries.

8 Gaps in current renewable energy policies of BRICS

The primary concerns in BRICS countries are the lack of proper financing channels for renewable energy, investment shortages in small and medium-sized enterprises and some imperfect government policies. Brazilian, Indian, and Chinese policies and laws lack focus on nuclear energy generation and geothermal energy. Very less interest are shown in rooftop solar and off-grid solar projects. Subsidies for wind power projects installations are missing in Brazil. Russian policies lack focus on subsidies and tariffs for renewable energy (Table 2). Moreover, no authentic literature discussing about their NCRES policies could be obtained. No policy document discusses or explains about energy resources of Russia clearly. However, a report of 2010 [39] mentioned the use of renewable sources for generation of energy according to capacity market. The main barrier that hinders biofuel development in Russia is strong natural gas and oil lobby, with a significant lack in coherent government policy and regulation [44]. India mainly focuses on solar and wind projects in NCRES sector and surprisingly, nuclear power only contributes to three percent of the total energy generation. Stable policies and more specific subsidies are not allocated in India for power generation from NCRES. Subsidies for new projects are required to be given for attracting consumers on small and big scale for renewable energy generation. South Africa energy policies are mostly based on conventional coal reserves with very less room for renewable energy. It pays less attention to putting a cap on countries GHG emissions.

The following recommendations are put forth to address the gaps in the existing renewable energy policies of BRICS countries. All non-BRICS and BRICS countries require to draw lessons from China and adapt to rise energy generation from renewable sources while putting a cap on coal reserves. For example, the initial tax exemption followed by a differential vat levies on power projects are all favorable policy decisions that have helped China to be a leader in the renewable energy sector. Especially India and South Africa may redefine some of their energy policies for providing more subsidies and tax exemptions for establishment of new NCRES projects. Improved legal and regulatory framework is required for Brazil and Russia to broader utilization of renewable sources. A key recommendation for BRICS countries is restrictive tax policy that introduces tax on energy consumption from fossil fuels to discourage its future use. Similar to Brazil and China, other BRICS countries, including India, should target at the increase of hydropower capacity from 8%–9% to more than 20%–40% for electricity purposes. Consumer specific subsidies are required for increasing the purchase of energy efficient equipment. On similar lines South African environmental allowance scheme for recycling and reuse of solid waste for energy generation may be looked upon. Structural reforms in the present electricity system with a boost in distributed solar power and reduced CO₂ emissions are essentially needed during the upcoming annual plans of the India and reliable grid for rooftop solar targets. Once the legal barriers in implementing energy efficiency technologies are revisited in all BRICS countries, it will be a boon for the renewable energy sector. BRICS are intelligently transitioning to green economy that will maintain their natural resources for future generations and provide employment in this emerging field. The role of BRICS cannot be neglected at the global level as these countries produce a major amount of total global renewable capacity and are in quick march to equalize with developed world in solving environmental issues.

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