India’s energy policy cannot be dictated by Euro-centric carbon targets designed for wealthy, post-industrial economies.
The recent conflict involving Iran and US-Israel has already exposed India’s energy vulnerability. Anticipating possible supply disruptions, the government advised petroleum companies to halt exports of refined fuels, cut supplies to industry and ensure LPG availability for households. The move highlights an uncomfortable question: how long can India keep its kitchens burning and its trucks moving if global supplies are disrupted?
The answer is sobering. India has barely 21 days of LPG storage and roughly 74 days of crude oil cover. Nearly 90 percent of crude requirements are imported, leaving the economy exposed to geopolitical shocks. Thin strategic reserves make energy security fragile.
This vulnerability reflects a broader policy drift — partly driven by copying Western energy prescriptions that do not suit India’s economic realities. The International Energy Agency has been ignoring the vulnerabilities of countries like India struggling to progress. Or is it a Western weapon?
Countries such as Germany and France industrialised for two centuries using coal, oil and gas. Their per-capita incomes are high, their energy demand largely saturated and their grids stable. Having already built wealth, they can now afford costly transitions to electric vehicles, battery storage and carbon taxes.
India cannot.
More Efficient Diesel vehicles have been found to have longer life and have better fuel efficiency than petrol as also the new diesel is far less pollutant. In practical terms, today’s diesel engines emit far fewer pollutants than older petrol vehicles.
India needs to scrap the impractical policy of junking of diesel vehicles as per age and not efficiency. It’s an unpragmatic decision that harasses India’s poor and the middle class the most. It diverts the policing powers in criminalising property or fuel issues. Diesel vehicles have been found to have longer and have better fuel efficiency than petrol as also the new diesel is far less pollutant. In practical terms, today’s diesel engines emit far fewer pollutants than older petrol vehicles.
The environmental trade-off is therefore more nuanced than the simple narrative of “dirty diesel” suggests. It diverts the policing powers in criminalising property or fuel issues.
India, by contrast, is still climbing the development ladder. With far lower per-capita income and rapidly rising energy demand, imposing identical carbon constraints raises costs for households and industry. LPG becomes costlier for kitchens, diesel for farmers and transporters, and electricity for small businesses. Such policies risk slowing growth while barely affecting global emissions.
Nowhere is this contradiction clearer than in the debate over diesel. Public discourse often portrays diesel as the villain of India’s energy story. In reality, it remains the backbone of the economy. Diesel moves nearly 70 percent of India’s freight, powers tractors and irrigation pumps in agriculture, runs buses and supports backup power for industries.
Modern diesel is also far cleaner than critics acknowledge. Since the shift to Bharat Stage-VI standards in 2020 — equivalent to Europe’s Euro-6 norms — sulphur content has dropped from 50 parts per million to just 10 ppm, an 80 percent reduction. Today’s diesel engines emit far fewer pollutants than older petrol vehicles or small generators.
From an efficiency standpoint, diesel remains difficult to replace. A litre of diesel typically delivers 10 to 15 percent more usable energy and better mileage than petrol. For heavy vehicles such as trucks, buses and tractors, this translates directly into lower fuel consumption per kilometre and reduced logistics costs. In a country where transportation costs feed directly into the prices of food, construction materials and consumer goods. That efficiency acts as an important anti-inflation buffer.
Forex and Re slide
There is also a crucial foreign-exchange dimension to the diesel debate and rupee slide. India imports crude oil but refines it domestically at scale, extracting multiple petroleum products from each barrel. By maximising the use of diesel already produced in Indian refineries, the economy extracts greater value from the same import bill.
India also extracts significant economic value from refining crude domestically. Indian refineries produce over 100 million metric tonnes of diesel annually, accounting for roughly 43 percent of refinery output. With total refining capacity exceeding 250 million metric tonnes per year, the country has become a major exporter of petroleum products.
Major refiners such as Indian Oil Corporation, Reliance Industries and Bharat Petroleum Corporation operate a sophisticated refining network that supplies domestic demand while exporting surplus fuel — often more than 600,000 barrels of diesel per day to markets in Asia, Africa and Europe. Replacing this infrastructure overnight with battery-based systems is neither economically nor technologically feasible. Electric vehicles depend on imported lithium, cobalt and rare minerals. Large-scale electrification also requires massive investments. In effect, dependence on oil could simply be replaced with dependence on imported minerals.
Moreover, battery manufacturing and disposal carry their own environmental costs. Mining lithium and cobalt is resource-intensive, and recycling infrastructure remains limited worldwide.
Energy transitions succeed only when alternatives become genuinely affordable, reliable and scalable. Until that point, fossil fuels — particularly diesel — will remain central to India’s development story.
India, by contrast, is still climbing the development ladder. With far lower per-capita income, rising energy demand and a large population dependent on affordable fuel, imposing identical carbon constraints risks slowing growth and raising the cost of living.
Energy policy, in other words, must follow economic reality rather than moral signalling. For India, the immediate priorities are affordability, reliability and security. Decarbonisation can proceed through efficiency improvements and gradual diversification, but forcing abrupt transitions before alternatives become viable is damaging both economic stability and social welfare.
Global crude prices remain volatile. When benchmarks like Brent crude cross $80 per barrel, India’s import bill rises sharply. With nearly 88 percent of crude needs imported, replacing diesel with batteries, electric vehicles and rare minerals could prove equally costly. Environmental goals remain important, but transitions must be pragmatic. Electrification makes sense for railways, metros and short urban routes, while freight, agriculture and heavy industry still require high-energy fuels like diesel.
India feels its thaw in manufacturing and the US and western discrimination for accepting its steel, aluminium and other products making carbon as critical issue.
For India, the message is straightforward. Energy policy must be India-centric, grounded in economic realities rather than imported European templates or prescriptions from agencies like the International Energy Agency. Fossil fuels may not represent the distant future of global energy, but for a developing economy striving to sustain growth and mobility, they remain indispensable.
Shivaji Sarkar