India inked Paris Climate Change deal on October 2, 2016, a landmark pact which calls on countries to combat climate change and limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees celsius.
India announced its new climate plan, also known as Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, (INDC). India’s INDC targets installing 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2022 (out of this, 100 GW has been allocated to solar and 60 GW to wind) by increasing its share of non-fossil based energy from 30 per cent to about 40 per cent by 2030.
It has committed to reduce its emissions intensity per unit GDP by 33 to 35 per cent below 2005 by 2030 and create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 through additional tree cover.
India’s report on climate action plan under the Paris Agreement suggests that over 80 per cent of the 51 companies are responding to CDP(carbon disclosure project). India’s climate change programme has reported one or more types of emission reduction targets and initiatives in 2017. It noted that 40 per cent companies are committed to renewable energy production and consumption targets with three of them even committing to 100 per cent renewable power in due course.
India has come out with the report jointly with the Environmental Resource Management(ERM). Highlighting how the Indian companies are increasingly adopting internal price on carbon as an important tool for managing climate risks, the report noted that number of such companies has increased from 2 in 2015 to 8 in 2016 and 14 in 2017. Just 478 units reduced 2 per cent of India’s annual CO2 emission.
Even the World Bank took note of India’s energy-efficiency services and the expansion of LED bulbs and tubelights that will have, by mid 2019, saved up to 20 GW of electricity capacity (that might otherwise have come from coal). Action in the solar power area demonstrates the counrty’s resolve towards meeting INDC targets.
Cumulative solar installations in India surpassed 17GW as of September 2017 with over 7GW installed in the first nine months of 2017, whereas wind power is at 32,746 MW, making India the fourth largest wind power producer in the world.