PESA Act

Why in the News?

Recently, India’s updated climate pledge to the Paris Agreement received the Union Cabinet’s nod.

• The UNFCCC will be informed of the pledge, which will outline India’s clean energy transition strategy from now until 2030.

What is a Climate pledge to the Paris Agreement?

• India’s submitted its first pledge in 2015.
• According to the 2015 Paris Agreement, each country must revise’ their pledges every five years to make higher commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
• India submitted its first pledge also known as NDC (Nationally Determined Commitments) had three primary targets:
  • By 2030, non-fossil fuels based energy will account for 40% of the installed electric power.
  • To lower the emissions intensity of the economy by 33–35 percent below 2005 levels.
  • To have an additional (cumulative) carbon sink of 2.5-3 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) by 2030 through planting additional forest and tree cover.

Commitments made at Glasgow: COP 26

In 2021, the Indian Prime Minister announced the following new five-point set of targets at COP 26 in Glasgow (UK).

• • India will increase its non-fossil fuel energy capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.
  • It will meet 50 percent of its energy requirements from renewable sources by 2030.
  • The total projected carbon emissions will be reduced by 1 billion tonnes from now through 2030.
  • The carbon intensity of its economy will be brought down to less than 45 percent.
• India will achieve its target of net zero by 2070.

Which of the targets announced at Glasgow has been included in updated NDCs?

• Only two of these five targets have been approved by the Union Cabinet. These are:
  • India will now reduce the emission intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030, instead of just 33 to 35%, from 2005 levels by 2030.
  • It would also target about 50% of its total electricity generation, not just 40%, which would come from renewable sources by 2030.