Climate targets should be revised upwards to transform India’s situation Ex-bureaucrat CK Mishra

New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) India’s climate targets have been ambitious since the Paris Agreement and there is an inclination to go further, but transforming the country’s situation may require raising the targets higher, a top former bureaucrat has said.
    Speaking to PTI, C K Mishra, former secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, said that climate targets should not be set only to meet global commitments, but with India’s own environmental needs in mind.
    “Whatever India committed in Paris has by and large been achieved. We have shown inclination to increase our ambition this time, but if we really want to change things dramatically, these targets may have to be revised upwards,” Mishra, who previously led Indian negotiations at United Nations Climate Change Conferences as secretary, said on Thursday.
    “Climate targets should not be set only to meet global commitments, but with India’s own environmental needs in mind. I strongly feel that we need to be bold and more ambitious,” he added.
    The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved India's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for the period from 2031 to 2035 to be communicated to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, officials said.
    India has also committed to reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 47 per cent by 2035 from the 2005 level, and plans to achieve 60 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2035, they said.
    Mishra, who spearheaded key policies like the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), stressed that the focus should be on targets that best suit India, rather than on concepts like net zero.
    “We could still do a much better job on emissions intensity of GDP, afforestation, and perhaps even renewables. We often get entangled in the concept of net zero… Let us not get caught up in such concepts, but instead focus on what suits us best,” he told PTI.
    Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, every country is mandated to finalise and submit NDCs every five years, specifying a set of actions it is taking to fight climate change.
    The first set of NDCs was submitted in 2015, which were then updated around 2020. Countries are now submitting the third edition of their NDCs.
    The CEO of World Resources Institute (WRI), Madhav Pai, welcomed India’s new climate targets, and commended addressing climate risks through adaptation.
    “This agenda now requires the same sense of urgency and scale of investment that climate mitigation has rightly received,” he said.
    In a statement to PTI, Pai said, “India has consistently met and exceeded its previous commitments ahead of schedule. Stronger financial flows – both public and private – and continued innovation across sectors like industry, transport and power, aligned with a low carbon trajectory, will be critical. The good news is that many of the building blocks are already in motion.”
    Meanwhile, environment experts have described the government’s 2031-2035 targets as ambitious and encouraging, viewing them as central to India’s economic growth and resilient development.
    Bhavreen Kandhari, co-founder of the Warrior Moms movement, said that while the targets seem good, the route to achieving them has to be strictly followed and implemented.
    “The announcement is very timely, ambitious and quite encouraging to see. Emissions cannot be ignored, and while efforts are underway to address them, they remain heavily concentrated,” Kandhari told PTI.
    Harjeet Singh, climate activist and founding director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, said India’s new NDC for 2031-2035 is a reflection of the country’s commitment to ambitious climate action, linking it directly to economic growth and resilient development.
    “While the global community waited with bated breath for this announcement, the result is a clear signal of integrity and commitment, especially at a time when several developed nations are backtracking on their climate pledges,” Singh told PTI.
    “As a global economic powerhouse, India can further accelerate its domestic efforts if the developed world meets its obligation to provide adequate climate finance,” he added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)