Statsguru: Seven charts explain India’s climate change challenge 

What is the news? 

CoP26 meeting will held in the next month. As it is reaching near, the global community is calling for India to do more tow­ards green energy. 

What are some key issues/facts wrt climate change scenario in India? 

Dependence on thermal sources: India has made remarkable gains in renewable energy. The share of solar, wind, biomass in total installed power capacity has increased from 1.2 per cent to 24.7 per cent between 2001 and 2021. However, in terms of energy production, India mainly depends on thermal sources.

– In 2019, thermal energy (coal, natural gas and oil) accounted for 76% of total production. The share of hydro was 17%.

Hence, India needs to do more. While 87 countries have revised their nationally determined contributions, India is yet to do so. The country is also yet to announce a net-zero target. 

India needs more resources: to achieve $400 billion worth of investment by 2030, India needs to step up and commit more resources. It also needs to revive the wind and solar sector to increase the capacity from both.

– If capa­city additions do not keep pace, India will miss its 2022 target for renewable expansion.

– A below 2 ^oC increase in tempera­tures by 2100 would erode 2.6% of India’s GDP

– if temperatures rise to 4 ^oC, the GDP reduction would be six times more at 13.4%. 

Services sector will bear the brunt: India stands to lose $35 trillion by 2070, if tempera­tures rise by 3 degrees Celsius. A significant damage would be borne by the services sector, which would witness an economic loss of $11 trillion. 

India as the private sector is taking the lead in green energy. Adani Group recently announced that it would make $20 billion worth of investment in green energy within the next 10 years. Reliance Industries also committed an investment of $10 billion in three years.

Source: This post is based on the article “ Statsguru: Seven charts explain India’s climate change challenge” published in  Business Standard on 27 Sep 2021.