{"id":81568,"date":"2026-01-08T13:41:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=81568"},"modified":"2026-01-08T13:41:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:11:50","slug":"indias-progress-climate-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/indias-progress-climate-targets\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Progress on Climate Targets: Achievements and Structural Gaps"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Climate Targets Latest News<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s progress on its climate targets is under scrutiny as recent assessments highlight a gap between emission intensity reduction and absolute emission control.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>India\u2019s Climate Commitments under the Paris Agreement<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the 2015 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/paris-agreement\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paris Climate Summit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, India articulated its climate strategy based on the principle of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">common but differentiated responsibilities<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recognising its low historical per capita emissions, India committed to four major climate targets:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reducing emissions intensity of GDP by 33-35% from 2005 levels by 2030<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Achieving 40% non-fossil fuel power capacity by 2030 (later enhanced to 50%)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO\u2082 equivalent through forests<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These commitments aimed to balance developmental needs with climate responsibility in a growing economy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Progress in Emission Intensity Reduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has made notable progress in reducing emissions intensity, emissions per unit of GDP.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By 2020, emissions intensity had declined by around 36% compared to 2005 levels, allowing India to meet its original Paris target nearly a decade ahead of schedule.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This improvement has been driven by three structural factors.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, the rapid expansion of non-fossil electricity sources such as solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear significantly reduced the carbon intensity of power generation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second, India\u2019s economic structure has gradually shifted towards services and digital sectors, which are less emission-intensive than manufacturing.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Third, national efficiency initiatives like the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-perform-achieve-trade-pat-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the UJALA LED programme have reduced electricity demand growth in industries and households.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, these gains largely reflect <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">relative decoupling<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where emissions grow more slowly than GDP rather than declining in absolute terms.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Persistently High Absolute Emissions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite improvements in emissions intensity, India\u2019s absolute greenhouse gas emissions remain high.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Territorial emissions stood at approximately 2,959 million tonnes of CO\u2082 equivalent in 2020 and have continued to rise thereafter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This highlights a key limitation of intensity-based metrics. While GDP growth has outpaced emission growth, total emissions have not declined.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sector-wise analysis reveals that emissions from cement, steel, and transport continue to increase, even as the growth rate of emissions from the power sector has moderated.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As India is now the world\u2019s third-largest emitter in absolute terms, the challenge lies in converting intensity gains into real emission reductions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Renewable Energy Expansion and Generation Gap<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s renewable energy capacity expansion has been impressive. Non-fossil fuel capacity increased from about 30% in 2015 to over 50% by mid-2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solar power has led this growth, rising from less than 3 GW in 2014 to over 110 GW by 2025, supported by falling tariffs and domestic manufacturing.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wind power growth, however, has been slower due to land availability, grid connectivity issues, and state-level regulatory hurdles.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A major concern is the <\/span><b>gap between installed capacity and actual electricity generation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although non-fossil sources account for over half of installed capacity, they contribute only around 22% of total electricity generation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coal continues to dominate power generation because of its ability to provide stable baseload electricity.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Storage limitations remain a critical bottleneck, with battery energy storage capacity far below projected requirements for the next decade.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Forest Carbon Sink and Governance Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is close to achieving its forest-based carbon sink target on paper.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Official estimates suggest that only about 0.2 billion tonnes of additional sequestration is required to meet the 2030 goal. However, definitional and governance issues complicate this assessment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Forest Survey of India\u2019s broad definition of forest cover includes plantations, monocultures, and tree cover outside natural forests.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While this inflates carbon stock figures, it does not necessarily reflect ecological health or biodiversity restoration.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, large funds under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act remain underutilised in several States, weakening implementation outcomes.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Climate stress, including heat and water scarcity, further threatens forest productivity, especially in ecologically sensitive regions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/business\/Economy\/indias-progress-on-its-climate-targets\/article70481985.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India\u2019s progress on climate targets highlights emission intensity gains and renewable capacity growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":81635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[4624,60,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-81568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-climate-targets","9":"tag-mains-articles","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}