India has ratified pledges made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Glasgow last November to accelerate India’s reliance on renewable energy to power the economy and be effectively fossil fuel-free by 2070. However the approved pledges were fewer than those Mr. Modi committed to.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Mr. Modi, on Wednesday approved an update to India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is a formal communication to the United Nations, spelling out steps to be taken by the country towards keeping global temperatures from rising beyond 2°C by the end of the century.
Mr. Modi had laid out five commitments, or ‘ Panchamrit’, as the government references it, namely: That India would increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW (gigawatt) by 2030, India would meet 50% of its energy requirements from “renewable energy” by 2030, it would reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now till 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by more than 45% and by the year 2070, India will achieve the target of “Net Zero,” namely, that there would be no net carbon dioxide emitted from energy sources.
