It is one thing to set ambitious goals, but quite another thing to achieve them. But India’s climate action goals unveiled here officially on Friday are not only ambitious but also achievable, experts note.
Economist Kirit Parikh, who led one of the committees formed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to come up with modelling studies and calculations for framing India’s INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) said that the main targets — up to 35 per cent cut in emissions intensity of the GDP and 40 per cent non-fossil fuel energy share by 2030 — were both realisable.
However, as far as India’s desired economic growth rate goals are concerned, these may suffer if necessary technology and financial resources are not provided by developed countries to support the goals.
Mr. Parikh said that pushing for solar energy, as envisaged in the INDCs, will cost in terms of initial investments in capacity and infrastructure, eight times more than what it will cost to invest in coal-fired plants.
Also, the cost of solar power generated for consumption is higher when compared with thermal power.
A way out would be to raise complementary funds through the coal cess. “India produces 600 million tonnes of coal every year and the cess is pegged at Rs. 300 per tonne,” Mr. Parikh says. That means, at the current levels of coal production, India can raise Rs.1,80,000 million which could be diverted to enhancing green technologies.
‘Target not ambitious’ Former Union Environment Minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told The Hindu that the 40 per cent non-fossil fuel energy target was “nothing revolutionary”, as it is already around 27 per cent.
“What is important is the solar trajectory which is expected to increase from 3 Gigawatts now to at least 100 Gigawatts by 2022. It is hugely ambitious but it must get done. We must learn something from the Germans in this regard,” he said.
He was also glad that the BJP had finally accepted the concept of emissions intensity. “When I first talked about it at Copenhagen and thereafter and announced a target for its reduction by 2020 by 25-40 per cent on 2005 reference levels, I was criticised bitterly by the BJP for surrendering sovereignty. Now, it is item number one in our INDCs portfolio,” he said. As regards the forest targets, Mr. Ramesh found them “laughable”, given the way the government was “liberally opening up forest areas for industry”.
An analysis by the Centre for Policy Research has further pointed out that sectoral targets for emissions cut are the crux of achieving the INDCs target.
“The real benchmark for India’s INDC is whether it avoids lock-in to a high-carbon future,” said Navroz K. Dubash, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. “By this standard, the most serious component is the detailed list of sectoral actions. This shows that key economic and infrastructure ministries have been closely engaged in formulating climate policy, which is an important break from the past.”
However, the INDCs lack in sectoral measures being outlined for emissions intensity reduction of the GDP. To this, Mr. Parikh said that the government did the right thing in not specifying sectoral measures, as the more information you give, the more pressure there would be in terms of monitoring and verification internationally.
