PM’s climate promises

November 8, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN Topics

PM’s climate promises

Subject – Environment

Context – At the UN climate conference in Glasgow last Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised India’s existing climate targets, and also announced a few new targets.

Concept –

Target	Achievement
Reduce its ‘emissions intensity’, or emissions per unit of GDP, by 45% from 2005 levels by 2030.	India’s emissions intensity was 24% below 2005 levels in 2016
Ensure that at least 50% of its installed electrical capacity in 2030 would come through non-fossil-fuel-based energy sources.	By November 2020, the share of renewables, including large hydropower, in total installed electrical capacity had already crossed 36%. The share of non-fossil fuel energy sources was over 38%.

Other Targets –

In the NDC, India has promised to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through forest and tree cover by 2030.
- Although forest cover has been growing, according to official data, the pace of growth so far has been far from commensurate with what is required to meet the target.
- The third promise made in India’s NDC, about increase in forest cover, did not find a mention in Modi’s speech.
In Glasgow, Modi said India would have 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based energy capacity by 2030.
- India had initially set out to install 20 GW of solar power capacity by 2020. That was later raised to 100 GW by 2022.
- Targets for wind and biogas were later added, making it a renewable energy power capacity target of 175 GW for 2022.
- Two years ago, Modi enhanced this to 450 GW for 2030.
- None of this was ever part of the NDC, but publicly announced targets India had set for itself.
India would ensure it reduces 1 billion tonnes from its projected emissions between now and 2030. Put another way, India would bend its business-as-usual emissions trajectory to ensure at least 1 billion tonnes of emissions are saved.
- This is the first time India has talked about making a reduction in its absolute emissions. All previous formulations used to be in terms of emission intensity, which are emissions per unit of GDP.
- The 1-billion-tonne reduction promise and the emissions intensity target, however, seem to be inextricably linked. The latter target too is about bending the emissions trajectory.
- It seeks to ensure that while India’s GDP as well as emissions would continue to grow, the rate of growth of emissions would be slower than that of GDP, so that more GDP is created for the same amount of emissions.
- Achieving the emission intensity targets would mean that India would be emitting far less than in the business-as-usual scenario.