PM Narendra Modi’s announcement at the 26th United Nations Conference of Parties or UN COP-26 in Glasgow on Monday, 1 November, that India will achieve net-zero by 2070 has taken the global forum by surprise.
India had, so far, refrained from declaring any such targets despite the PM’s meetings with several international delegates earlier this year. While some climate experts are lauding the move, several others are dismissing this announcement by calling it ‘unrealistic’ and ‘counter-productive.’
Carbon net-zero is when a country’s carbon emissions are removed from the atmosphere by carbon absorption or sequestration. It means cutting down on as many emissions as possible, balancing out the total emissions, and leading to what could be called ‘carbon neutrality’.
To limit global warming, the global temperature will have to be kept under 2 degree Celsius. To achieve this, countries will need to become carbon net-zero.
While developed countries have announced ambitious net-zero targets given their technological abilities and financial capacities, achieving the same targets is an uphill task for developing countries.
2070: An Unrealistic Target for India
To achieve the net-zero target by 2070, India will have to acquire carbon-capture technology (which is able to absorb or sequester all emissions that we have not been able to cut-down). This technology, however, is exorbitantly priced, and not scalable at the extent required.
PM Modi also spoke on the need for developed countries to deliver on their promises of climate finance. Under the Paris Agreement in 2015, the developing countries had promised to deliver on their NDCs if the developed countries helped them in doing so financially.
“India expects developed nations to make climate finance of one trillion dollars available at the earliest. Today, it’s important to track climate finance just like we track the progress of climate mitigation. It would be appropriate justice to create pressure on nations that don’t meet their own promises of climate finance,” he said.
Under the commitment made by India, reducing carbon emissions by 100 million tonnes means that we will reduce emissions by about 22 percent. Achieving this goal means that Indians will be emitting less carbon by 2030 than the average of citizens of all industrialized countries. According to the Center for Science (CSE), India’s goals are ambitious, yet full of challenges.
Sunita Narayan, founder of the center, says that India already faces the challenge of meeting the needs of millions of its poor citizens, we did not need to make such a commitment. Developed countries should contribute more in this regard. On the other hand, in order to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070, our energy sector will also have to undergo a major transformation.
500 GW of non-fossil fuel potential by 2030
The Central Energy Authority of India has already given this target by 2030. According to them, in 2019, we were generating 134 GW of electricity from non-fossil fuel, which will be increased to 522 GW by 2030. It will generate 280 GW from solar power and 140 GW from wind power. By 2030 alone, we will need a total of 2,51,800 crore units of electricity, which was 1,37,600 crore units in 2019. For this, a total capacity of 817 GW will have to be achieved.
How Carbon Emission will be Reduced
- 50% of electricity from renewable energy: In 2019, the country was generating 9.2 percent of the electricity requirement from renewable energy sources. It has to be brought down to 50 percent by 2030. The country will have to achieve 630 GW capacity of renewable energy.
- Dependence on coal will decrease: In 2019, 63 percent of the electricity with 228 GW capacity was being generated from coal. By 2030, the dependence on coal will drop to 56 percent.
- 100 million tonnes reduction in carbon emissions: India is emitting 2.88 gigatons (100 million tonnes) of carbon dioxide in 2021. If this growth continues, then by 2030 the figure will be 3.48 gigatons. India will reduce it by 1 gigatonne.
- Per capita carbon emissions 4 times less than Americans: India has also set a target of 22% carbon emission reduction per capita. It could reach 2.98 tonnes by 2030, now it will be brought down to 2.31 tonnes. At the same time, Americans will be emitting 9.42 tonnes, European 4.12 tonnes and Chinese 8.88 tonnes.
