Debate emerges in govt over 500 GW RE target in new NDCs

In the soon-to-be-updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) or climate targets, the government has debated setting the 500GW renewable energy target and plans to reduce one billion tons of cumulative emissions by 2030.

According to the media, the issue was officially raised in the recent inter-ministerial talks on updating India's NDCs.

Soon the government was due to submit a proposal to the Union cabinet on updating India's NDCs. It will likely be completed in time for the December COP-27 meeting in Egypt.

All countries are expected to submit their post-2020 climate targets or NDCs upon the achievement of the Paris Agreement.

However, India is poised to surpass its 2015 NDCs and has yet to submit its new and updated 2030 NDCs.

In October 2021, during the COP-26 talks in Glasgow, a template was prepared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In addition to announcing India's commitment to a net-zero target of 2070, the Prime Minister announced that by 2030, India would ensure that 50% of its installed electric power would come from non-fossil fuel sources, apart from reaching 500 GW. to non-fossil electric current.

However, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) started an argument that the PM's announcement should be respected, but it was not required to include it as an NDC target.

They said an NDC guaranteeing a 500 GW commitment, including a 50% target, would tie India to the target even if the country's total electricity demand does not increase proportionately by 2030.

Apart from that, a target of 500 GW NDC would also prevent any new renewable energy project from counting towards the international carbon markets as Article 6 of the Paris Agreement only counts projects outside the NDCs.

However, to achieve the 500GW RE target, virtually every renewable energy (RE) project would need to be included.

The second proposal warns against achieving a one-billion-ton reduction in India's cumulative emissions from 2021 to 2030.

Currently, India's CO2 emissions are about 2.8 gigatons and it is expected to reach 4.48 gigatons by 2030.

Huge efforts for decarbonization and guidelines for clean fuel switches would be required, even though technologies for such large-scale switches have not been tested so far.

The ministries have red flagged this commitment in NDC.

This commitment would invite tight global scrutiny of these targets, as the country is at a critical stage of development that would entail some growth in greenhouse gas emissions.

India's announcement to cut the country's gross domestic product (GDP) emissions intensity by 45% from 2005 levels by 2030, if achieved, could accommodate such an ambition.