COP-27: India’s net-zero strategy lays out the challenge before it, and the world

At the COP26 in Glasgow last year, India made two significant commitments: It promised to meet 50 per cent of its energy needs from renewable fuels by 2030 and transition to a net zero carbon economy by 2070. By all accounts, the country is well on course to achieve its short-term target.

Accomplishing the decarbonisation target will, however, require tackling much stiffer challenges. India will need “trillions of dollars” to become carbon neutral, according to a report that lays down the country’s strategy to meet its 2070 goal. The document, released at the ongoing COP27 at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, also notes that adapting to climate change could cost India more than Rs 85 trillion by 2030. In the past, funding has been a deal breaker in climate negotiations.

That’s why the world’s third-highest emitter could have its task cut out. But there’s another takeaway from the document which the negotiators at Sharm El-Sheikh, especially those from the rich countries, would do well to not miss out on: A business-as-usual scenario in funding would seriously imperil the Paris Pact’s goal of keeping temperature rise down to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The strategy document does not specify mid-term targets or goals. However, the government’s other policies do offer insights into the net-zero pathway. The National Hydrogen Mission launched in 2021, for instance, aims to make India a green hydrogen hub. The country also has clean energy plans such as 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol to burn less fossil fuel by 2025 and an electric vehicle project has been on the government’s anvil for at least five years. Using several of these technologies will require industries to make large-scale changes.

Electricity’s share in industrial energy will have to multiply three-fold by 2070. Electricity-driven four-wheelers should constitute 70-80 per cent of the road traffic. The recent impetus on renewables could mean that such electricity is from a clean source. However, China dominates the market of most essentials in the EV supply chain. That’s perhaps one reason the strategy document is alive to scenarios in which fossil fuels continue to constitute a significant part of the energy mix.

It talks of using methods such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) to remove GHGs before they enter the atmosphere. These technologies are currently expensive and of uncertain utility. That said, in recent times, CCS has become a key constituent of decarbonisation strategies of countries such as the UK. India should find ways to make knowledge transfers in these emerging technologies part of its trade pacts with rich countries.

Releasing the strategy document, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav underlined India’s energy security concerns. India’s per capita energy consumption is barely a tenth of that of the USA — the world’s highest emitter. The country cannot afford to forgo its developmental imperatives, especially since that involves lifting a large section of its population above poverty levels. That’s why addressing the climate problem can no longer be postponed: The solution to the crisis must be found without the poor having to do the heavy lifting.