why India needs a green deal?

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Last Updated18/01/2022

Political will and successful execution of the Indian Green Deal are required to solve today's urgent concerns, such as emissions and inequalities.

With major storms like Amphan in the east and Tauktae in the south, catastrophic droughts in Maharashtra, persistent rains and flooding in Chennai and Uttarakhand, and Delhi on lockdown previously because it couldn't see or breathe, India faces climate change (and pollution at the local level) dangers.
We're right in the center of it. To make matters worse, we are in the midst of a historic economic crisis, which is both pandemic-related and partly pre-pandemic.

The three main components of the overall strategy are: Infrastructure development, the care economy, and a green energy program.
The planned 10% of GDP should be divided into three parts: 5% for infrastructure development, particularly rural infrastructure, 3% for the care economy, and the remaining 2% for green energy.

It helps that these industries have a strong capability for creating jobs.
According to the PLFS May 2019 employment report, IGD not only absorbs people who are now jobless, but it also creates more jobs, which may easily absorb a considerable portion of disguised unemployment.
To compare the IGD to a business-as-usual scenario, consider that if the sum dedicated to green energy in the IGD had been spent on the fossil fuel industry, just 2.4 million jobs would have been created instead of the 8 million in our plan.
So, contrary to popular belief, transitioning to a green economy is a win-win situation in terms of both emissions (and pollution) and jobs.
Curb carbon emissions: The green energy programme will reduce India's overall carbon emissions by 0.8 gigatonnes by 2030, compared to forecasts based on the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Stated Policies Scenario (STEP).
Efficiency and clean renewable energy are the two components of this initiative. Since India's energy intensity is so high, energy efficiency is critical. It can save about a third of the country's energy.

The main issue is funding, as a poor country's ability to set aside 10% of GDP over ten years is tough.
There are two options for funding this: taxing the wealthy or putting together a global transition package with the largest polluters.
The global carbon price settlement mechanism, which might earn roughly $270 billion for India, can help to alleviate global inequality.
The richest ten% of Indians emit five times more than the lowest ten percent. This disparity can be remedied by enacting a revenue-neutral strategy that raises taxes on luxury products, belt and inheritance taxes, carbon taxes, and so on.

In comparison to forecasts based on the International Energy Agency's Stated Policies Scenario (STEP), the green energy program will reduce India's overall carbon emissions by 0.8 gigatonnes by 2030. (IEA).
Energy efficiency and clean renewable energy are two components of this program's investment.
India's energy intensity (energy usage per unit of GDP) is far greater than the world average, which may be drastically decreased by addressing the first component.
As a consequence, India will save about a third of the energy it would have consumed if the initiative had not been implemented.

India's glasshouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to climb as an expanding country.
However, India has pledged to reduce the carbon intensity of its GDP by 33-35 percent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
It seeks economic growth while reducing emissions.
While GDP (current prices) climbed at a 12 percent CAGR between 2011 and 2016, emissions increased at a 4 percent CAGR.
India's latest Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change reveals this.

India declared in 2019 that it will increase its renewable energy installation capacity to 450 GW by 2030.
India's officially declared objective at the time was 175 GW by the year 2022.
The installed renewable capacity has been quickly increasing in recent years, and increasing it from 450 GW to 500 GW as promised is unlikely to be difficult.
The share of non-fossil fuel energy in the energy mix increasing to 50% is a natural implication of this.
The renewable and non-fossil fuel sectors are seeing the newest capacity increases in the energy industry.

Climate Neutral: Reducing all GHG to the point of zero while eliminating all other negative environmental impacts that an organization may cause.
Carbon neutral means that any CO2 released into the atmosphere from a company’s activities is balanced by an equivalent amount being removed.
Net-Zero carbon emissions: An activity releases net-zero carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Net-Zero emissions balance the whole amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) released and the amount removed from the atmosphere.
In reality, India has said that no new coal power plants would be built beyond 2022.
India has already set a goal of producing 40% of its power from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.

According to the implications of a Net-zero Target for India's Sectoral Energy Transitions and Climate Policy report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Waters, India's total installed solar power capacity will need to expand to over 5,600 gigawatts by 2070 to attain net-zero.
To attain net-zero emissions by 2070, India's use of coal, particularly for electricity production, would have to reduce by 99 percent by 2060.
Crude oil consumption would have to reach a peak by 2050 and then plummet by 90% between 2050 and 2070 across all industries.
Green hydrogen may provide 19 percent of the industrial sector's overall energy requirements.