Climate change, an issue of global concern, has prompted nations, including India, to revisit their environmental goals. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Conference of Parties (COP), and the Paris Agreement have all contributed to driving a more comprehensive and rigorous approach towards mitigating climate change.
India, recently, announced enhanced climate change targets for 2030 at the UNFCCC COP 26 held in Glasgow in 2021. The country has committed to reducing emissions intensity of GDP by at least 45% from 2005 levels, significantly enhancing its earlier target of a 33%-35% reduction. Furthermore, India commits to ensuring that at least half of its installed electricity generation capacity by 2030 would rely on non-fossil fuel-based sources, marking an increase from the previous 40% target.
The Significance of India’s Updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
The NDCs are efforts by each nation to reduce national emissions and adapt to climate change ramifications. India’s updated NDCs seek to contribute to the strengthening of the global response to the climate change threat. Besides helping India transition to low-emissions growth pathways, these NDCs demonstrate India’s commitment to decoupling economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions.
The revised NDCs will result in significant transformations, such as Indian Railways achieving a net-zero target by 2030, leading to a reduction of emissions by 60 million tonnes annually. Other NDCs include increasing non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030, reducing projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, and achieving net-zero carbon by 2070.
India’s Initiatives towards Climate Change
India has initiated several measures to combat climate change, focusing on reshaping the transport sector, supporting electric vehicles (EVs), rolling out government schemes, and encouraging industries to transition to low-carbon models.
For instance, India advocates the global EV30@30 campaign, aiming for at least 30% new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030. Government schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana have helped millions of households switch from coal-based cooking fuels to LPG connections.
Further initiatives include the Hydrogen Energy Mission that aims at generating hydrogen from green power resources. The Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme is another market-based mechanism set up to accelerate and incentivize energy efficiency in large, energy-intensive industries.
Highlights of UNFCCC COP 26
The UNFCCC COP 26 held in Glasgow in 2021 called for countries to strengthen their 2030 targets by COP27 in 2022. The summit urged around 140 countries to announce target dates for bringing emissions down to net zero. India also consented to this consensus and announced a 2070 net-zero target.
Another significant development was the Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda, endorsed by 42 countries, including India. This agenda aspires to expedite the development and deployment of clean technologies and sustainable solutions in areas such as clean power, road transport, steel, and hydrogen.
Despite these breakthroughs, experts suggest that the 2030 targets need to be more ambitious to limit global warming effectively. Without significantly tightened measures, global temperatures are likely to rise by 2.1°C to 2.4°C.