Climate Consequences - If India Sneezes

As 2022 starts, India faces the combined challenges of the COVID-19 and the climate crisis. Yet, India continues to fight the pandemic and climate change, as demonstrated by heroic efforts by public health offiers and strong climate commitments. Given these commitments, 2022 is a critical year for implementation in India and around the world. As the warning goes, “when Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold,” the same is true for India and the rest of the world when it comes to climate change. Read on to know more in this article by Anjali Jaiswal, M Joshi, and S Kwatra.

- Anjali Jaiswal, M Joshi, and S Kwatra.

While India is rapidly developing, the choices made today in terms of energy sources will have profound impacts on the world. Communities are already seeing the catastrophic impacts of climate change from unprecedented flooding to record-breaking heatwaves across India. The sobering 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report1 finds that if we do not radically change course, there will be dire climate change-induced consequences for the world. India, a major economy where a large portion of the infrastructure needed for the future is yet to be built, is critical in this equation.

India’s Climate Targets

By definitively committing to 50 per cent of India’s electricity generation from non-coal or gas sources by 2030 is nothing short of transformative. India is a leader in clean energy, especially solar and wind energy. India is largely on track to meet its Paris Agreement targets, as discussed in recent analysis2 by NRDC and partners. The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, is sending a clear signal to business, industry and world leaders that India is moving forward with decarbonization and building a clean energy economy.

India also strengthened its Paris target by committing to: further reduce the carbon intensity of its economy to less than 45 per cent, from the earlier target of 33 to 35 per cent, from 2005 levels by 2030; increase non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030, formalizing India's earlier renewables commitment; and ; reduce India's total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now to 2030. India also joined other nations in announcing a net-zero emissions target by 2070.