Abstract:

This study is grounded in the concept of carbon budgets and determines India’s fair share of the global carbon budget using four budget allocation approaches. Four Indian research groups then use different energy-economy models to distribute these budgets across time and sectors to determine decadal milestones for India’s key energy sectors, viz. power, industry, and transport.To achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting average global temperature rise to well below 2°C with an effort towards 1.5°C, all countries must align their net zero emissions targets with low carbon pathways that together limit global cumulative emissions to the remaining global carbon budget. To inform such climate compatible low carbon pathways for India, this study calculates India’s share of the global carbon budget using four allocation approaches and then employs four energy-economy models to translate these carbon budgets into long-term low carbon pathways for India, thus highlighting key decadal clean energy milestones and policy recommendations for India’s power, industry, and transport sectors.