India’s absence from the list of countries that signed the Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge has come as a surprise considering New Delhi, as the G20 president, plays a significant role in ensuring the agreement on renewable energy capacity and energy efficiency

At the COP28 climate meeting on Saturday, both China and India chose not to sign the pledge that sought to triple the global capacity for renewable energy by 2030, despite India’s previous commitment made during its G20 chairmanship.

At the UN climate talks, 118 countries accepted this bold objective aimed at reducing the world’s total energy production from fossil fuels. Supporters of the promise included Barbados, Japan, Australia, Canada, Chile, Brazil, and Nigeria.

“The world does not work without energy, but the world will break down if we don’t fix the energies we use today,” said Al Jaber. “The world will break down if we don’t mitigate the emissions at a gigatonne scale. The world can potentially break down if we don’t rapidly transition to zero-carbon alternatives,” he added.

Although China and India have stated that they are in favour of tripling the amount of energy that comes from renewables by 2030, they did not formally embrace the idea during Saturday’s proceedings. The commitment calls for cutting back on the use of fossil fuels in addition to increasing the use of clean power.

The commitment called for the immediate phase-down of coal power and the end of funding for new coal-fired power facilities. The term “unabated” fossil fuels generally denotes the continuous utilisation of coal, oil, and gas without any attempts to reduce emissions; nevertheless, a specific and widely acknowledged meaning of this phrase is still absent.

The International Energy Agency emphasises that, in order to reduce the need for fossil fuels and keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the world must double its pace of energy efficiency growth and triple its capacity for renewable energy sources by 2030.

By 2030, India’s renewable energy capacity is expected to more than triple, according to the country’s 14th National Electricity Plan (NEP). However, as stated by the international energy think tank Ember this week, accomplishing this audacious target necessitates a large investment of USD 293 billion.

Ember’s analysis suggests that India requires an additional financing of USD 101 billion (one billion = Rs 100 crore) to further expand its renewable energy capacity and align with the IEA’s proposed net-zero scenario.

India’s current goal is to reach 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.