The country will boost the share of electricity produced from sources other than fossil fuels to 40 per cent by 2030, the government claimed.
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“India now has positioned itself as a global leader in clean energy, and is poised to play an active and influential role in the worldwide climate negotiations this December”, said Rhea Suh, president of New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Through this INDC, India has shown its commitment to combating climate change and these actions are, indeed, important contributions to the global effort”.
Still, a few environmental advocates praised the plan’s commitment to renewable energy and said that, if enacted, it could put India on track to reduced carbon emissions in the long run.
“Accordingly, India’s development plans will continue to lay a balanced emphasis on economic development and environment”, it said, recounting the framework’s mandate based on the principles of equity, as also common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities of the member nations. China, for instance, has committed to peak its emissions by 2030, after which they would begin to fall.
Christiana Figueres, the U.N.’s climate chief, hailed the wide participation as a sign that Paris could be a “turning point” towards 2C, the level accepted by governments as the threshold beyond which the Earth would face unsafe changes including more droughts, extinctions, floods and rising seas. India the third largest emitter after the United States, and China has been as a reluctant participant in the global exercise to scale down emissions.
India also plans to get up to 40 per cent of its energy mix from non fossil fuels by 2030.
For achieving a 33-35 per cent reduction in carbon emissions across sectors, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries infrastructure, water resources and ecosystems, India would need to spend around $206 billion between 2015 and 2030, according to preliminary estimates. Even if India’s expectation on technology transfer or financial assistance from developed countries does not materialize, emissions intensity of GDP will keep declining. However, the INDC package does at least mean that India goes into the Paris talks looking like a responsible negotiator, rather than the spoiler it has traditionally been.
However, the required percapita emission target was not set by India as expected and the country said it would aim to achieve much lower average of the developed countries. “Still, we want to become part of the solution and give results”, he added.
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“India’s pledge to make a significant reduction in emissions with strong support for renewable energy compared to business as usual is to be warmly welcomed”, said Saleemul Huq, senior fellow at the worldwide Institute for Environment and Development, an independent policy organization.
