Faced with huge needs to combat poverty and support the growth of its population, the subcontinent remains very dependent on coal, the most polluting fossil energies.
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The second most populous country, with its 1.3 billion inhabitants, third world polluter, India is largely in its hands the battle of the climate. Without major effort on its part, the imperative to contain climate warming below 1.5 degrees will be impossible to complete. The subcontinent is the second largest coal producer in the world and the third coal consumer. It is also one of the most vulnerable to the disturbance of the climate, with its Himalayan chain subjected to melting glaciers, its coastline (7,517 km) exposed to the cyclones and the rise of waters and its semi-desert regions.
Western Chancelleries, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, have exercised considerable pressure in the last weeks on Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, to convince him to deposit before the COP26 from Glasgow new more ambitious commitments than those who had been formalized at COP21, at the end of 2015. India had then refused to set a global decline trajectory of its greenhouse gas emissions and was satisfied. a 35% reduction in its GDP’s carbon intensity by 2030 compared to 2005. “This formula allowed the country to continue to develop its economy, but more properly”, Analysis Ulka Kelkar, Climate Director of the World Resources Institute (WRI) for India. India has completed, setting up the carbon neutrality by 2070, announced Prime Minister Narendra Mod in Glasgow Monday, November 1st.
Already results
In Paris in 2015, had also promised to significantly increase the share of renewable energies in its energy mix, bringing it to 40% of its electrical capacity by 2030. A more ambitious goal than the most developed and essential countries because the energy sector alone accounts for 74% of domestic greenhouse gas emissions. By comparison, the United States was aimed at 30% renewable energies by 2030, the European Union 27%.
Finally, India had to increase its forestry surface and create additional carbon wells by 2030 to allow absorption of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO 2 additional.
“India is on track to achieve the first two promises made in Paris. In August 2021, it reached 39.6% of the installed electrical capacity from non-fossil sources of fuel. and the country reached to lower its carbon intensity of 25% GDP compared to 2005 “, assures ulka kelkar.
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