India’s Climate Progress Was Uneven, December 2023 Assessment Found

India had made gains toward its climate commitments, but progress varied across targets, Kaushik Deb and Noyna Roy wrote in a December 1, 2023 assessment published by Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Non-fossil sources accounted for 43 percent of installed electricity capacity, exceeding the country’s original commitment of 40 percent by 2030. Fossil fuels nevertheless supplied nearly 73 percent of electricity generation.

The authors estimated that reaching the separately announced goal of 500 gigawatts of non-fossil capacity by 2030 would require annual additions of 43.5 gigawatts, compared with nearly 12 gigawatts annually since 2015. They also identified the forest carbon-sink pledge as particularly challenging, saying significant additional efforts were needed.

The assessment highlighted an important distinction between installed power capacity and electricity actually generated: a larger non-fossil capacity share had not eliminated fossil fuels’ dominance in supply. It also distinguished India’s formal climate submissions from separate political announcements, noting that the 500-gigawatt goal was not included in its updated 2022 submission.