India plots tricky path to growth and net zero

India plots tricky path to growth and net zero

India comes to COP27 as part of an exclusive club: one of around twenty countries to have submitted updated plans for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions since the last global climate conference in Glasgow, last November.

Prime minister Narendra Modi then committed to having net zero carbon emissions by 2070, later than the 2050 deadline set by many other countries.

India and China were also at the centre of upset in Glasgow after they were accused of insisting that a UN commitment be only to “phase down”, rather than “phase out”, coal use.

Even so, the world’s third-largest polluter has now added to the commitments its government made in Glasgow.

In August, New Delhi provided more details on changes to its so-called Nationally Determined Contribution targets, updating its previous submission from 2015.

Firstly, India has committed to reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 45 per cent from its 2005 level — previously it had aimed for a cut of just 33-35 per cent by 2030.

Rajat Gupta, who leads consultancy McKinsey’s sustainability practice in Asia, describes this measure as “grammes of carbon for every dollar of GDP”, which helps weigh carbon emissions in relative, rather than absolute, terms because India’s economy is growing from a