India announces new 2035 climate roadmap: What it means for economy and growth

It’s been a while coming, but India finally updated its climate change mitigation objectives on 25 March. These are India’s NDCs or nationally determined contributions, under the 2015 Paris Agreement. The objectives, which will govern the period from 2031-2035 are more ambitious than the current NDC (till 2030), and revolve around three key pledges.

The first is to reduce India’s emissions intensity to 47% by 2035, the second is to ensure that 60% of the country’s total electricity generation capacity comes from non-fossil fuel sources, and the third is to create a carbon sink (through fresh tree cover and plantations) that is equivalent to 3.5-4 billion tonnes of CO2.

This marks an increase in India’s climate ambition from the current NDC, which sought to decrease energy intensity of GDP by 45% by 2030 from its 2005 level, 50% of the country’s electricity capacity coming from renewable sources, and creating an additional carbon sink corresponding to 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2.

While the updated goals might be on the conservative side, the encouraging thing is India’s track record in meeting its climate goals. For instance, the current 2030 goal of 50% of energy capacity from renewable sources was achieved five years early in 2025.

As some analysts have pointed out, the new target is an indication that India is thinking clearly in terms of becoming a renewable energy-based economy. “The targets also suggest that India is internalising the idea of a ‘green economy’—where climate action is not treated in a silo, but embedded within the country’s broader development and economic strategy,” said Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

However, even as these new goals give a direction on national energy priorities in the long run—which will also impact how the day-to-day lives of Indians will change over the next decade and beyond—on paper, the ambition can be seen as conservative. “Continuing the current clean energy growth at rates already achieved in 2024-25 would enable India to peak power sector emissions well before 2030 and significantly slow down its CO2 emission growth rates. Yet, the carbon intensity target announced today allows for an acceleration of emissions growth compared with past rates if GDP growth is at target. India's booming clean energy industry is highly likely to deliver much faster progress than policymakers were prepared to commit to today,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, Lead Analyst and Co-Founder, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

It should be noted that many countries still haven’t submitted their updated NDCs, even though the nominal deadline was last year. But in a world riven by fossil fuel wars and with the US embracing oil and gas wholeheartedly under the Donald Trump government, India’s renewed climate ambition is a global plus, and gives heft to BRICS as well, of which India is the chair this year.