COP26: India’s Narendra Modi surprises climate summit with 2070 net-zero vow
- The world’s third-biggest emitter will increase its non-fossil fuel power capacity goal and half of India’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2030
- Modi wants rich nations to make US$1 trillion available as soon as possible to help less developed countries decarbonise
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The challenge for India is figuring out how to finance the transition to net zero, which will require trillions of dollars of investment.
Modi reiterated his stance that rich countries should help support poor nations by raising more money to accelerate the transition to clean energy – though he did not specify how much exactly India would need from the international community.
“It is India’s expectation that the world’s developed nations make US$1 trillion available as climate finance as soon as possible,” Modi said, a figure that’s 10 times more than annual climate finance target set by rich countries. “Justice would demand that those nations that have not kept their climate commitments should be pressured.”
Bloomberg reported earlier that Modi’s office had been working on modelling what was needed to get to net zero. But the officials balked at setting a goal without strong financing commitments from rich nations.
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On Monday, the Indian leader backed up his 2070 net-zero goal with more aggressive near-term targets. He raised India’s 2030 target for low-emission energy capacity to 500 gigawatts from 450GW and pledged to produce half the country’s electricity using renewable energy.
India will also cut carbon-dioxide emissions 1 billion tons (907 million tonnes) from business as usual by the end of the decade. To deliver on the 2070 goal, the country still has to lay out a detailed plan for the 40 years in between.
One of COP26 President Alok Sharma’s hopes for the Glasgow summit is to eke out enough commitments from countries to keep the Paris Agreement’s stretch goal of global limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels within reach.
Modi’s announcement is consistent with what research shows is needed to meet that target. To keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that the world has to reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by about mid-century and then hit net zero across all greenhouse gases by 2070.
“Country-wise net zero cannot be the same for all nations,” said Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive officer of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, who has advised the prime minister’s office. India’s target is “equitable and just”, he said.
Modi also committed to increasing India’s 2030 carbon intensity reduction goal – measured as carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product – from 35 per cent to 45 per cent. Stern, from the London School of Economics, said the new targets could mean India reaches peak emissions by 2030.
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At the COP26 opening, developing nation leaders expressed frustration that rich countries have failed repeatedly to deliver on a promise to mobilise more funds to help them decarbonise and adapt to a warming planet. Still, in their speeches on Monday, it was smaller and poorer countries that stepped up.
Nepal and Thailand also set new carbon neutrality targets, for 2045 and 2050, respectively. Meanwhile Canada and Australia declined to set new short-term emissions targets, though they did pledge some new money toward financing the transition.
“In the last few months, India has been lining up policies that can take it towards these goals, policies about hydrogen, electric vehicles, renewable energy and industry decarbonisation,” said Chandra Bhushan, president of New Delhi-based International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology. “Now India needs investments.”