India’s road to net zero carbon emissions will be long and challenging — while it’s not impossible, it will need a lot of strategic planning in the decades ahead, economists told CNBC.
The world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases surprised the world on Monday by setting a target for net zero carbon emissions — after years of rejecting calls for it.
Kelkar said she believes India’s 2070 target is “very much achievable” when taken together with the other targets for 2030 that Modi announced.
They include the following:
India will expand its renewable energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030;
Around 50% of its energy needs would come from renewable sources;
It will reduce total projected carbon emissions by a billion tonnes between now and 2030;
India will reduce carbon intensity of its economy by less than 45%.
The pledges “will provide policy certainty to industry to invest in decarbonization technologies, and will also inspire India’s states and cities to set their own net-zero pathways to development,” Kelkar said on email.
