India firms up its promise of emission cuts

New Delhi (TIP): India on March 25 approved enhanced climate targets for the 2031-2035 period under the Paris Agreement, raising its commitments on emissions, clean energy, and forests at a time when the United States has withdrawn from the global climate framework and several developed nations are scaling back ambition.
The Union cabinet approved three quantitative goals as part of India’s revised nationally determined contribution (NDC) — the formal pledge each country makes under the Paris Agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The new targets represent a step-up from the goals India set for the 2030 period, announced in August 2022.
India now aims to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP — the amount of greenhouse gases produced per unit of economic output — by 47% by 2035 from 2005 levels, up from the earlier target of 45% by 2030. It has committed to drawing 60% of its cumulative installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources by 2035, against the previous goal of 50% by 2030. And it has raised its target for carbon sinks — CO2 absorbed through forest and tree cover — to 3.5-4 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2035, from 2.5-3 billion tonnes by 2030.