India’s updated climate pledge to Paris Agreement

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• Recently, India updated its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). 

More about the news

• Updation of the pledge:
  • As per the Paris Agreement’s provisions, countries must ‘update’ their pledges every five years to make higher commitments to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. 
• India’s first pledge:
  • The country submitted its first pledge in 2015. 
  • India’s first pledge, also known as a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), had three primary targets. 
    • The first was to reduce the emissions intensity of the economy by 33–35 percent below 2005 levels. 
    • The second was to have 40 percent of installed electric power from non-fossil-based energy resources by 2030. 
    • The third target was to create an additional (cumulative) carbon sink of 2.5-3 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) by 2030 through additional forest and tree cover.
• Updated pledge:
  • India now stands committed to reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 45 percent by 2030 from its 2005 levels, as per the updated NDC. 
  • The country will also target about 50 percent of cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.
  • To further a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, ‘LIFE’ ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ as a key to combating climate change” has been added to India’s NDC.

Significance

• Pathway of India:
  • The pledge will lay out India’s clean energy transition pathway from now through 2030.
  • The pledge will be communicated to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 
• Non-fossil power target:
  • Analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found that the 50 percent non-fossil power target is achievable. 
    • As of June 2022, the cumulative installed power capacity from non-fossil sources is 39.7 percent (when including large hydropower projects). 
  • To make this a truly ambitious goal, it must go beyond installed capacity and account for 50% of generation as well.
• Emissions intensity target:
  • On the emissions intensity target, CSE’s observations suggest that India had achieved 25 percent of emission intensity reduction of GDP between 2005 -2016 and is on a path to achieving more than 40 percent by 2030. 
  • But for this, India will have to implement enhanced measures across the transport and industrial sectors as well to reduce emissions. 
• Financial resources and technological support:
  • The updated NDC will clarify the need for international climate finance. 
  • India will also require its due share from such international financial resources and technological support.
• No sector-specific mitigation:
  • India will not be bound to any sector-specific mitigation obligation or action. 
    • The Indian delegation at the UN’s mid-year climate change conference (SB 56) held in Bonn in June 2022 was opposed to the imposition of binding targets for any sector, fuel or greenhouse gas. 
    • This was done to avoid specific demands being placed on its coal sector, or on emissions of GHGs such as methane.