A farm worker uses a solar-powered water pump in the village of Jagadhri in northern India. Prashanth Vishwanathan / IWMI via Flickr
India is producing one-third less heat-trapping gas for every dollar generated by its economy, officials say.
From 2005 to 2019, India’s carbon emissions roughly doubled, but its economy grew even faster. As forests expanded and renewable power came online, it was able to cut the total amount of carbon produced per dollar of economic output. In just 14 years, India trimmed the carbon intensity of its economy by 33 percent, two officials told Reuters.
India has been able to “completely decouple” its economic growth from its carbon emissions, said one official, who declined to be named. Looking ahead, the government is aiming for a 45 percent drop in carbon intensity by the end of this decade, though it could reach that goal as early as 2025, analysts say.
By 2070, India aims to each net-zero emissions. In support of this target, it pledged more than $4 billion for low-carbon energy earlier this year. Climate scientist Jayaraman Srinivasan, of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, praised the funding, but, he told Nature, “it will take many decades of consistent policy to transition from coal, oil, and gas to renewables.”
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