India’s higher climate targets

India’s higher climate targets

Subject :Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context:

• Two ingredients of Modi’s Glasgow Panchamrit are now official targets. Neither target — cutting emission intensity, and increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in electricity generation — seems difficult to achieve
• India’s NDC, or nationally determined commitments, have been updated with these two promises, both of which are enhancements of existing targets, and would be submitted to the UN climate body. The 2015 Paris Agreement requires every country to set self-determined climate targets which have to be progressively updated with more ambitious goals every few years. India’s first NDC was submitted in 2015, just before the Paris Agreement was finalised.
• Two promises that Modi had made in Glasgow have not been converted into official targets. The Prime Minister had announced that India’s non-fossil fuel electricity generation capacity would touch 500 GW in 2030. He had also said that India would cut at least one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from its net projected emissions between now and 2030.
• Both these promises were tricky. The 500 GW non-fossil fuel electricity capacity target for 2030 is not easy. Of the current installed capacity of 403 GW, over 236 GW, or 58.5 per cent comes from fossil fuel sources, while non-fossil fuels, which include not just renewables like solar or wind but also hydropower, nuclear and others, make up only 167 GW. Capacity additions from non-fossil sources would have to triple in the next 10 years to reach the 500 GW target.
• The total installed electricity capacity has more than doubled in the last 10 years (from 199 GW in 2012 to 403 GW now), but it is not only because of non-fossil fuel sources. While renewables have seen an impressive increase, installed capacities from fossil fuels have also doubled during this period.