Experts question India’s new climate change goals

Debate over whether 4th-biggest emitter of CO2 is doing enough to fight global warming

- Debarshi Dasgupta

India has pledged higher targets on climate but the new goals, which omit a specific target for renewable energy, have prompted a debate on whether the world’s fourth-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide is doing enough to fight global warming.

According to its updated nationally determined contribution (NDC) announced last week, India has committed to reducing its emissions intensity – the volume of emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) – by 45 per cent by 2030 from its 2005 level. It has also set a target of 50 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuels by 2030.

Installed capacity refers to the maximum output of electricity that a power generating system can produce under ideal conditions.

These are higher goals compared with the 2015 NDC ones that had pledged a 33 per cent to 35 per cent reduction in emissions intensity by 2030, and 40 per cent electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuels by the same year.

The new NDC targets will be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ahead of the Conference of Parties (COP) climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November.