High City Sanae's India visit yields another achievement: agreement with Modi to promote cow dung-based power generation
From July 1 to 3, High City Sanae visited India, during which she reached a consensus with Modi to launch the Japan-India Compressed Biogas Cooperation Initiative.
Sanae stated that India’s vast rural bio-resources—such as cow dung, rice straw, and sugarcane bagasse—would be fully utilized to produce compressed biogas. The goal is to establish 1,000 biogas power plants in India by 2030, helping the country achieve clean energy targets.
This proposal perfectly aligns with India’s needs. With over 300 million cows, converting cow dung and similar waste into energy not only prevents pollution and methane emissions caused by burning or discarding such materials but also contributes positively to carbon neutrality, while simultaneously producing organic fertilizer as a byproduct.
However, India’s vast rural areas present challenges in collection and transportation. Moreover, it remains uncertain whether Sanae will even remain in office by then, and we cannot predict how Japan’s next prime minister will view India.
In my opinion, this is merely a pragmatic move by Sanae—a “carrot” offered to strengthen ties with India, actually aimed at promoting Japanese automobiles. For immediately after this proposal, she emphasized the creation of a market for approximately 2.5 million CNG (compressed natural gas) vehicles powered by compressed biogas, hoping to use India as a stepping stone to enter other markets.
Therefore, the Japan-India “cow dung power generation” collaboration holds greater strategic significance than economic or environmental benefits—it is a mutually understood, win-win arrangement.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1869665710439690/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author