Meeting climate commitments will be a challenge, say experts

Things will become clear once India spells out how it plans to go about achieving targets

India’s headline announcement at COP26, to suggests that it has committed itself to decisive action to curb runaway greenhouse gas emissions from mid-century.

However, experts say that much will become clear only after India submits its updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). This document spells out the minutiae on how exactly it plans to go about achieving these targets.

India's five-fold plan, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi spelt out on Monday say India’s non-fossil energy capacity will reach 500 GW by 2030; it will meet 50% of its energy requirements with renewable energy by 2030; it will reduce its total projected carbon emissions by a billion tonnes by 2030; and reduce the carbon intensity of its economy to less than 45% and achieve net zero by 2070. Net zero is when a country’s carbon emissions are offset by taking out equivalent carbon from the atmosphere, so that emissions in balance are zero.