India in Action: Obama trip a chance for India to accelerate towards a clean energy future

President Obama will travel to India this weekend and - we hope - will strengthen a growing cooperation between the United States and India on climate change and clean energy. As NRDC and TERI noted in a letter to the President and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, bilateral collaboration in these areas has made remarkable progress since the  Prime Minister visited Washington D.C. last year and signed the Green Partnership. More steps forward are expected as an outcome of the visit and should support domestic actions India is already taking on its own.

NRDC has just released a new Factsheet on “India’s Actions to Address Climate Change and Move Toward a Clean Energy Future”.

Key steps taken by India so far

Highlighted in the Factsheet are a few specific examples of what India has already set in motion. For instance, in 2008, India released an ambitious National Action Plan on Climate Change, which articulated “national missions” in eight key areas including solar energy, energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, the Himalayan ecosystem, forestry, sustainable agriculture and climate change science.

Since the plan’s release, India has demonstrated its commitment towards solar energy by releasing its guidelines under the National Solar Mission. India’s goal is to develop 20 Gigawatts (GW) of solar power by the year 2022.

Between 2010 and 2013, India plans to develop 1,100 Megawatts (MW) of solar energy with both grid-connected solar power plants and decentralized solar projects. As elaborated in NRDC’s new Factsheet, India is providing funding incentives to solar power operators, financial institutions, state and local governments, utilities, NGOs, and entrepreneurs.

Another promising example is India’s interest in energy efficiency. Under the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency, India set up a pioneering program called Perform, Achieve, Trade (PAT). PAT encourages energy efficiency in high energy-consuming industries by creating an innovative trading scheme where participants can trade Energy Savings Certificates, and compete with one another to save as much energy as possible. This program is expected to reduce carbon emissions from India by nearly 98 million tons a year, from current levels.

Other significant measures India has taken in the recent past include the introduction of a “coal tax” of $1 per metric ton of coal, funds from which will be used to finance clean and renewable energy projects and advance the goals of the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

India has also eliminated gasoline subsidies, and reduced subsidies on diesel, natural gas and kerosene. These, and a host of aggressive measures described in detail in NRDC’s new Factsheet (including actions to promote wind energy, energy efficient buildings and appliances, sustainable transport, afforestation and avoided deforestation and climate change science), will help India accelerate on the path of sustainable development, and create a stable, healthy, robust economy that is able to meet national goals as well as people’s welfare goals over the next few decades. These pro-growth development actions will have significant climate-change co-benefits, and will help India meet its Copenhagen Accord commitment of reducing its emissions intensity by 20-25 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2020.

The need to build on initial momentum

India is off to a good start in the race, but there is a long road ahead and the sheer scale of the climate change problem calls for much stronger actions by India in the years to come. Better enforcement and implementation is needed to ensure that existing efforts reach their potential. There should also be more accountability from Ministries, Departments and individual staff tasked with these programs to ensure that targets are met by specified deadlines. Moreover, the initial momentum from the steps taken so far should be used to reach higher targets than the ones set in the National Action Plan, the Copenhagen Accord or any complementary national policies.

India is the second most vulnerable nation in the world to climate change, and it is in its own self interest to lead the world in the fight against climate change. India should accelerate even faster towards clean energy sources, and use the tremendous ingenuity and enterprise of its highly educated workforce to make alternate energy technologies more cost-competitive. Since India has already reduced emissions intensity 17% from 2005 levels, leaving only a further 3-8% reduction, it could aim for the full 20% target by 2015 and then consider setting a new target for 2020, demonstrating to the world how countries serious about climate change must act. Adaptation efforts should be stepped up, to ensure that vulnerable populations already coping with a host of challenges do not become easy prey to the serious health threats of climate change. 

President Obama’s visit has the potential to become a crucial moment for India to take stock of its efforts against climate change, and recalibrate what it can aim to do in the next few years – both on its own, and together with the United States.

India’s partnership with the United States has added strength to India’s own efforts. At the same time, the United States can also learn from many of India’s actions. As NRDC President Frances Beinecke noted, President Obama’s visit this week has immense potential to be transformational for both nations. We hope that it bolsters the exchange between the two countries on climate change and clean energy, and that India and the United States evolve into a true team, partnering with each other in an effective and results-oriented manner that leads both to joint success in the global clean energy race.