Current clean power capacity of 41% but 73% power generation in 2022-23 from coal
Photo: iStock The Indian Government has cleared for submission the country’s Third National Communication (TNC) and Initial Adaptation Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The submission will fulfil India’s obligation to furnish information under the Convention and the Paris Agreement.
In a press brief, key points were highlighted from the TNC, emphasising India’s commitment to addressing climate change, reducing emissions, and enhancing adaptive capacities. The TNC document itself is yet to be made public. It is based on the National Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory of 2019, and the press brief reported India as among the first 26 developing countries submitting communications based on the GHG inventory of 2019 or later.
The brief states that a reduction of emission intensity of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 33 per cent has been achieved between 2005 and 2019. It is important to note that in the original submission of NDCs, India had set a goal of a 33 per cent reduction in the emission intensity of GDP by 2030. This goal, however, saw an upward revision to 45 per cent in the updated set of Nationally Determined Contributions India submitted under the Paris Agreement in 2022.
In relation to another NDC target concerning the addition of non-fossil fuel-based power capacity, India currently has a 41 per cent share of clean power in terms of capacity. This surpasses the original NDC target of 40 per cent for non-fossil fuel-based power in 2030. However, India has since revised the target to an even more ambitious 50 per cent as of 2022.
Even though non-fossil capacity has crossed 40 per cent, India generated 73 per cent of its power from coal in 2022-23, while 12 per cent came from ‘new renewables’, excluding hydropower. However, the Central Electricity Agency has projected the share of coal in electricity generation to decrease to 55 per cent by 2030 and new renewables to reach 31 per cent by the same year.
The TNC reports GHG emissions for 2019, with the energy sector contributing the most (75.81 per cent), followed by the agriculture sector (13.44 per cent), industrial processes and product use (IPPU) sector (8.41 per cent) and waste (2.34 per cent).
GHG emissions for 2019 according to TNC
Source: CSE
The land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector remained a net sink in 2019, removing 4,85,472 gigagrammes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GgCO2e) of emissions. A GgCO2e is equal to 1,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
Considering total emissions and removals, India’s net national emissions in 2019 were 26,46,556 GgCO2e (or 2.6 billion tonnes CO2e). Total national emissions (including LULUCF) have increased by 4.56 per cent with respect to 2016.
On the third NDC target of creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tonnes through tree and forest cover by 2030, the report indicates that India added an extra carbon sink of 1.97 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent between 2005 and 2019.
The report references India hosting and supporting the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster-Resilient Infrastructure as part of its commitment to mitigation and adaptation efforts.
On finance, India has met its commitments largely through its own financial resources, the report said, and asked developed countries to walk the talk on the commitment of $100 billion of climate finance.
India’s Adaptation Communication will also be submitted as an annexure to the TNC that discusses adaptation measures taken in India. According to the press brief, the report noted that public finance mobilised under flagship programmes of the government cover most of the adaptation-based activities.
In the updated database on the state of extreme weather events in India, the Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment and Down to Earth found that the country witnessed such events on 235 out of the first 273 days of this year. These events resulted in the loss of over 2900 lives, impacting 1.84 million hectares of cropland and causing significant property damage. This highlighted the pressing need for India to urgently prioritise adaptation measures.
The expenditure pertinent to adaptation accounted for 5.6 per cent of the GDP in the fiscal year 2021-2022, the brief states, marking an increase from the 3.7 per cent share recorded in 2015-16.
According to the press release, there is a sizable shortage of adaptation resources that cannot be filled solely by government funding. Given the escalating impacts of climate change and the expenses associated with resilience measures, substantial contributions must be directed through both bilateral and multilateral public finance, as well as private investments.
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