At COP26, India had announced its goal to become a net-zero emitter by 2070, a crucial milestone in the fight against global warming and climate change.
Despite India's low per capita emission, it is the third-largest emitter globally. "While India’s emissions stand at 1.8 tonne carbon dioxide per capita, versus 14.7 for the US & 7.6 for China, it is still the world’s third largest emitter, with its per capita emissions expected to rise in line with its growth trajectory," McKinsey & Co said.
It has released a report, 'Decarbonising India: Charting a pathway for sustainable growth,’ that presents an in-dept analysis of the opportunities and mechanisms to decarbonise the five sectors that contribute to around 70 percent of India's overall emissions — power, steel, transportation, cement and agriculture.
"This will be a decisive decade. With intentional action, India can accelerate decarbonisation at scale while pursuing economic growth," the report stated.
It lays down 10 programmes that India should implement in this decade in order to get to net-zero:
Have a detailed medium-term decarbonisation plan with priorities that are sector-specific and policy frameworks which account for interdependence across sectors and give demand signals to guide corporates to invest.
"Accelerate implementation of a compliance carbon market (within three years). This would also require the creation of demand signals, especially in hard-to-abate sectors, and incentives linked to investments in newer technologies like carbon, capture, usage and storage (CCUS)," the report stated.
Banks should be enabled to support the transition, catalysed by a green-transition bank. They could be told to come up with their investment paths within two years and build the required capability to assess risks in these new spaces.
In the power sector, India should accelerate renewable adoption to scale up capacity addition by four times and keeping a 30-year outlook, market reforms should be deepened in a manner which ensures a stable grid, fed predominantly by infirm power.
A nodal authority to define a national land-use plan. Clear land-use guidelines should be laid out for optimised use across industrial needs, urbanisation, carbon sinks, agriculture as well as renewables.
India should create a resilient manufacturing capability that is indigenous and raise investment in cleantech R&D. Efforts would also be required to develop raw material resources, secure materials from other countries and produce equipment via mechanisms such as production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes.
Evaluation of the five carbon capture and storage hubs in Odisha (Paradeep), Gujarat (Jamnagar), Maharashtra (Pune), Rajasthan (Barmer) and Andhra Pradesh (Vizag) potentially in public-private partnership to utilise and store captured carbon.
A national circularity mission: Create recycling hubs in the top 20 Indian cities that contribute 35 percent municipal solid waste, with recycling rates that have mandated targets, landfill levies and recycle raw material use.
"Enhance the National Hydrogen Mission with government playing a key role in accelerating demand through blending mandates, boosting cost competitiveness via capital subsidies and R&D investments, and enabling export opportunities via international trade agreements," the report stated.
Empower firms to play on the front foot, evaluate investment opportunities that the green trend would unlock, aligned with India's national plans or opportunities that are opened up due to decarbonisation of other countries (for example, green hydrogen derivative exports), the report added.(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
