Climate Action Tracker, an initiative tracking global carbon emission, has said that the continuing rapid growth in renewable energy in India and a slowdown in coal development is one of the most important developments underway globally.

CAT said that the target 175 GW of renewable power capacity of current policies can be reached by 2022. India is already set to over achieve its 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) emissions target. The likely continued expansion of renewables after 2022, for which no targets have yet been set, would result in India also overshooting the 2030 non-fossil capacity target set in its NDC.

CAT said that India’s current policies on reducing carbon emissions are stronger than the countries commitments as determined by the NDC, given at the Paris Agreement. As a result, although CAT still rates India’s efforts as “medium”, upgrading the commitments to match planned policies would move its NDC significantly towards the “sufficient” rating and would place it in a leadership position globally.

For instance, the Draft Electricity Plan projects that despite increasing electricity demand no new coal capacity, apart from that already under construction, would be needed after 2022. If the Draft Electricity Plan is implemented, India will generate 40% of energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2022, a full 8 years before the target.