India begins work on long-term plan to achieve net zero target by 2070

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Even as India is set to communicate its updated 2030 climate targets or nationally determined contributions (NDCs), it has begun work on the long-term action plan to achieve net zero target by 2070, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the last year’s Glasgow climate conference.

India is actively working on formulating Long-Term Low Greenhouse Gas Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) paper, a climate action document that will spell out the country’s roadmap to net zero.

Hectic inter-ministerial consultations were underway to draft out a ‘whole of economy’ approach involving several stakeholder ministries, officials said.

ET has learnt that 7-8 sector-specific groups have been set up to devise a targeted low-emission growth trajectory, with adaptation and mitigation measures across areas such as energy supply, transport, agriculture, industry, waste and buildings, besides carbon capture technology, R&D and finance.

“We are in the process of readying the long-term low GHG emission development strategy paper. This will address our 2070 net zero goal. Rounds of inter-ministerial as well inter-sectoral discussions are on for the same as this is a ‘whole of economy’ exercise covering energy, urban growth, industrial transition, technologies for carbon capture and more,” an official involved in the exercise told ET.

“We are assessing both the opportunities that will come with such a holistic transition as well as the uncertainties and the barriers in the way. Seven working groups are in place for the same to ensure this massive energy transition,” the official said.

Just transition and the need for GDP development are also likely to figure in India’s document.

A total of 50 LT-LEDS representing 60 parties have so far been communicated ahead of the Conference of Parties-27 scheduled to be held in November in Egypt. India is yet to send its LT-LEDS and is silent on the timing of its submission. “We are not running against a deadline, but we are actively working on it,” officials said.

LT-LEDS will amplify the ambitions India will set in the NDCs and these will be communicated to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Union Cabinet recently approved the new NDCs which will see India commit to reduce emission intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030 (from 2005 level) and achieve about 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. India’s updated NDC will be implemented over the 2021-2030 period, said a government statement, adding that this exercise was also a step towards achieving India’s ‘long-term goal of reaching net-zero by 2070’. (The Economic Times)