India to make one billion-tonne reduction in projected emissions until 2030: PM Modi

Significantly increasing India’s previous climate targets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would make a one billion-tonne reduction in projected emissions from now until 2030.

India was the largest emitter and the only G20 country not to have announced a net-zero target. But at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, the PM accepted global demands to agree to a net-zero emissions target. He set a 2070 date to achieve it and made five big announcements, termed as the ‘Panchamrit’.

“India will reach its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030. India will meet 50% of its energy requirement from renewable energy by 2030; and it will reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now onwards till 2030. By 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by less than 45%; and by the year 2070, India will achieve the Net Zero.”

PM Modi said these panchamrits will be an unprecedented contribution of India to climate action and emphasized that India’s climate targets were not just another promise amongst several made by other countries. “We all know this truth that the promises made till date regarding climate finance have proved to be hollow. While we all are raising our ambitions on climate action, the world ambitions on climate finance cannot remain the same as they were at the time of the Paris Agreement,” he highlighted. “India has resolved to move forward with a new commitment and a new energy. In such times, the transfer of climate finance and low cost climate technologies becomes most important. India expects developed countries to provide climate finance of $1 trillion at the earliest. It is necessary that we track the progress made in climate mitigation, we should also track climate finance.”

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The prime minister said India is moving forward on the subject of climate with great courage and great ambition. PM Modi acknowledged the fact that for many developing countries, climate change is looming large over their existence. “India also understands the suffering of all other developing countries, shares them and will continue to express their expectations.”