India has reset its closer-term climate goals on its way to net-zero emissions by 2070. It now plans to raise the share of non-fossil fuel energy to 60% by 2035, as against 50% by 2030 planned earlier.
The country also plans to increase its carbon sink, or its capacity to absorb emissions, to 3.5-4 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2035, a target upped from 2.5-3 billion tonnes by 2030.
A key measure is the emissions intensity of India’s GDP—the amount of greenhouse gases produced per unit of economic output. The new aim is a reduction by 47% by 2035 from its 2005 level. The earlier target was a 45% drop from the same baseline by 2030.
This sounds like a modest change for the five more years it’s expected to take. But it’s a process that seems to get harder as we go along. By the government’s data, this intensity had fallen 36% from its 2005 baseline by 2020.
However, India’s energy demand has been rising rapidly and renewable power generation is among the few successes in our transition to clean energy. Some analysts would like GDP growth to get priority over decarbonization in any trade-off. While climate hawks disagree, India can’t fully tilt one way or the other.