In 'Eyes Now on Viksit, Net Zero Later' (Edit Page, Oct 16), Bjorn Lomborg argues that India's ambition to become a developed country by 2047 and its commitment to net zero emissions by 2070 'work at cross-purposes', and presents an 'immense trade-off' in which trying to achieve both will make Indians poorer. But data he quotes and reports he cites reach almost the opposite conclusion.
NITI Aayog's study, 'Scenarios Towards Viksit Bharat and Net Zero', estimates that net zero needs $8.1 tn additional investment over the next 45 yrs. Lomborg divides this by today's GDP and concludes that India must spend 4% of GDP every year for half a century to achieve net zero, more than it spends on education or health. This is fakery, not analysis.
