India's recent commitment to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity of its economy by 33 to 35 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, as well as to create an additional forestry-based carbon sink of 2.5-3.0 billion tonnes, exceeded even the most optimistic expectations of the global community. These form part of India's new climate action plan, or Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), which has been formally presented to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ahead of the forthcoming climate summit at Paris in December. The overall message that New Delhi has sought to convey through this ambitious plan is that though its contribution to causing global warming is relatively meagre - merely three per cent of the cumulative global carbon emissions - it is willing to do much more to mitigate its adverse impacts. Even if the major polluters, such as China and the US, manage to cut down their GHG emissions as pledged in their INDCs, they would still be putting out more than double India's carbon emissions in 2030. It thus makes sense for New Delhi to not take on any sector-specific mitigation obligation. That could have impinged upon domestic priorities, such as the protection of subsistence livelihoods and the retention of necessary carbon space for economic development.
The new climate plan, though seemingly tough, is not unfeasible given political will. But its funding requirement is daunting - India would need to meet nearly 40 per cent of its electricity requirement through non-conventional sources. The already announced target of generating 175 Gw of power from renewable sources by 2022 will actually need to be nearly doubled so as to achieve a level of 300 to 350 Gw of non-conventional energy by 2030. The overall additional investment needed to implement the new climate plan is a massive $2.5 trillion at current prices, much of which will need to be generated domestically.
Unfortunately, New Delhi seems to have subjected the implementation of this plan to the availability of finance, technologies and capacity building assistance from the rich nations. That this hope is ill-founded post the financial crisis is clear from the fact that the Global Climate Fund, which was mooted in 2011 as a financial assistance mechanism, has remained a virtual non-starter. Targeted to mobilise $100 billion by 2020 through contributions from the developed countries, it has barely managed to collect $10 billion so far. However, the INDC package does at least mean that India goes into the Paris talks looking like a responsible negotiator, rather than the spoiler it has traditionally been. Now, it can and should play a meaningful role in facilitating a strong and pragmatic global climate deal at Paris, based on the principles of climate justice and common but differentiated responsibilities of all countries.
