10 | New Scientist | 6 November 2021
INDIA has said it will reach
net-zero carbon emissions by- This is decades later than
many other countries, but it
marks the first time the country
has put an end date on its
contribution to climate change.
The target was announced by
prime minister Narendra Modi
at the COP26 summit in Glasgow,
UK, on 1 November, amid
warnings by world leaders about
the dangers of failing to act fast
enough on emissions.
“A year ago, no one would have
expected India to announce a net-
zero target at COP26,” says Thomas
Hale at the University of Oxford.
“But that’s the nature of tipping
points. Once critical mass is
reached, it is very hard not to
join in.” He says that countries
representing 90 per cent of
global GDP are now covered
by a net-zero target.
However, India’s 2070 date
is 20 years later than the 2050
pledged by the UK, US and other
high-income countries, and later
than the 2060 chosen by China,
Russia and Saudi Arabia.
“The date is late, but more
important is that India committed
to zero at all, which was thought
to be unlikely by many,” says
Niklas Höhne at the NewClimate
Institute, a German non-profit
organisation. The long-term
commitment will also shape
investments today, he adds.
With a population of 1.38 billion
and growing, India is the world’s
fourth biggest emitter after China,
the US and the European Union.
But it has some of the lowest per
capita carbon dioxide emissions,
at 1.9 tonnes per person in 2019,
compared with 5.5 tonnes in the
UK and 16 tonnes in the US, a point
Modi has repeatedly emphasised
in the past.
The new goal wouldn’t see
the world stick to the Paris
Agreement’s aim of keeping
temperature rises to 1.5°C above
pre-industrial levels, as that
requires global emissions to reach
net zero around 2050. Hale says
that it is largely the fault of richer
countries, which used much of the
world’s “carbon budget”, leaving
little room for countries like India
to grow their economies.
Modi also declared four other
steps, including 50 per cent of
India’s energy being sourced
from renewable sources by2030. Although he used the word
“energy”, the target is very likely
to cover only electricity, as such
a goal for energy would be nigh-
impossible for India.
The country’s renewable
energy capacity should reach 500
gigawatts by 2030, up from around
134GW today, and it is also aiming
to cut its projected CO 2 emissions
by a billion tonnes between now
and 2030 and cut its carbon
intensity – emissions released for
each unit of GDP – by 45 per cent.
Modi said that while the world
had focused on cutting emissions,
Analysis COPALAS
TA
IR^ GRANT
/AP/SHUTTE
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TOCKIndia’s pledge on net zero
The nation’s 2070 net-zero goal is later than others, but still means that all
major emitters now have an end in sight for fossil fuels, says Adam VaughanIndian prime minister
Narendra Modi speaking
at the COP26 summitNews
it hadn’t paid enough attention
to adapting to a warming world.
“This is an injustice to those
countries more impacted by
climate change,” he said.
India’s 2070 pledge means
that all major emitters have
now declared a net-zero deadline,
effectively putting a backstop on
when the world will stop burning
fossil fuels. Last week, China,
the world’s biggest polluter,
formalised its 2060 goal in a plan
submitted to the United Nations.
The blueprint also committed to
peaking emissions before 2030.
The COP26 summit was
opened by UK prime minister
Boris Johnson likening the
situation for world leaders faced
with climate change to being
James Bond strapped to a ticking
doomsday device. He said the
meeting in Glasgow could become
the moment humans began to
“defuse that bomb”.
Broadcaster and naturalist
David Attenborough gave an
emotional speech, urging leaders
to stabilise atmospheric CO 2
concentrations and to turn
“tragedy into triumph”. He added:
“Our motivation should not be
fear, but hope.” UN secretary
general António Guterres issued a
bald warning that: “We are digging
our own graves.” Meanwhile, US
president Joe Biden apologised
for the US pulling out of the Paris
Agreement under Donald Trump.
One of the most striking
speeches of the day came from
Mia Amor Mottley, prime minister
of Barbados. “1.5°C is what we need
to survive. 2°C is a death sentence
for the people of Antigua and
Barbuda,” she said, referring
to one of the island nation’s
Caribbean neighbours. “Can we
find it within ourselves to bring
Glasgow back on track or do we
leave today believing it was a
failure before it starts?” ❚1.38bn
India has the world’s second
largest population after China...1.
... but its per capita CO 2 emissions,
in tonnes per person, are some of
the lowest in the world500
Renewable energy capacity,
in gigawatts, that India wants
to achieve by 2030