Accelerating India's Net-Zero

Relevance: GS Paper III

Why in News?

India’s current climate strategy targets net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2070. The author instead makes the case for an accelerated schedule to achieve net zero by the country’s 100th birthday in 2047.

An ambitious undertaking:

• Accelerating India's net-zero target from 2070 to 2047 requires a strong commitment from all stakeholders, sectors, and citizens.
• The approach is based on a three-legged stool involving -
• Government policies.
• Private industry scaling solutions.
• Society embracing a low-carbon lifestyle.

Unique advantages of India

• Demographics: India’s conducive demographics provide an abundant labour force for the transformation. However, demographics are a two-edged sword.

• • As the most populous nation, India has to seize every opportunity to grow economic activity and create high-quality jobs.

• • On the other hand, India must also be careful to encourage a low-carbon lifestyle as the middle class grows rapidly.

• STEM prowess: India has the most English-speaking science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors in the world, and nearly 50% of women enrol in colleges and advanced degrees.

• • Its scientific prowess and entrepreneurial spirit are robust. The country boasts an advanced start-up ecosystem, evidenced by 84,000 startups, and ranks third globally in startup funding.

• Digital society: India is an increasingly digital society, which bodes well for customer engagement in programmes like demand/response required to balance the grid.

• • Demand/response programmes involve digital incentives for customers to shift electricity usage away from the system’s peak periods.
• Low carbon footprint: Compared to the rest of the developed world, India has a relatively small per capita carbon footprint of about 4 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and a unique greenhouse gas (GHG) profile dominated by the agricultural and electricity sectors.

Way forward - Three-Phase Plan to Net-Zero by 2047:

Phase 1: Low-hanging fruit (2024 – 2030):

• Agricultural reforms: The goal would be to boost farming productivity while dramatically reducing methane emissions. Better use of resources such as seeds, water, and fertilisers would be a side benefit.
• Power sector enhancements: A significant increase in solar, onshore and offshore wind and battery storage would be required, coupled with investments in transmission and grid reliability.
• Maximising self-reliance while building out this ambitious electrical grid is important. During this period, campaigns for electrification of transportation and cooking will begin.
• Importantly, seeds would be planted for the subsequent two phases, especially R&D investments and startups to innovate carbon abatement methods in sectors not readily addressed by current technologies.

Phase 2: Gathering momentum (2030 – 2040):

• Achieve 100% non-carbon generation: During this second phase, electricity production should achieve 100% non-carbon generation.
• Transportation and cooking: Light-duty transportation, including 2,3, and 4-wheelers, will achieve 100% electrification, as will cooking. Progress will also be made on heavy-duty trucking and shipping.
• Industrial decarbonization: Begin partially decarbonising manufacturing and industrial processes and continue R&D in hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, steel, aviation, shipping, mining, and high-temperature industrial processes.

Phase 3: Mopping Up (2040 – 2047):

• Scaling technologies: Until 2040, the primary effort should be to scale up well-understood technologies.
• Innovative solutions: This phase will require new innovations, techniques, business models, and startups, hence the emphasis on the necessary investment in the prior decades.
• Many solutions have already been proposed, including smokestack capture and sequestration of carbon, the use of cleanly produced “green hydrogen” as an industrial feedstock and fuel, direct air capture of GHGs from the atmosphere, electric aviation, and cargo ships with sails and electric motors.
• Economic considerations: Economic viability will determine the success of various innovations and solutions.

Conclusion:

This three-phase plan is achievable given India’s vast resources and human power. Accelerating net zero to 2047 requires an estimated investment of $3.4 trillion, which is 1% of India’s gross domestic product over the three phases. This effort would address the ecological and environmental climate crises, leveraging India's vast resources and human power to achieve the ambitious goal.

Mains PYQ:

Q. 'Clean energy is the order of the day.' Describe briefly India's changing policy towards climate change in various international fora in the context of geopolitics. (UPSC 2022)

Q. Describe the major outcomes of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). What are the commitments made by India in this conference? (UPSC 2021)