India surpassing key climate goals, can grow faster with clean energy: UN

India is already meeting and exceeding key climate targets and has a real opportunity to grow even faster, using clean energy and industry, UN climate change chief Simon Stiell has said.

In an email interview with PTI, Stiell emphasised that India's unique geography and huge population means huge numbers of people are vulnerable to climate impacts. And therefore, he said, the need to invest in ensuring people, communities, infrastructure and businesses are resilient is clear.

"India is already meeting and exceeding key targets. For example, by installing 100 GW (gigawatt) of solar in record time or providing electricity in every village.

"I see a real opportunity for India to grow even faster, using clean energy and industry, which will be a huge benefit to India's economic prosperity, with millions more jobs, better health outcomes, more affordable and secure energy accessible to all, and faster-rising living standards for the Indian people," the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said.

He said from melting glaciers in the north, to stronger storms and cyclones, and food insecurity, India's unique geography and huge population means huge numbers of people are vulnerable to climate impacts.

"And the need to invest in ensuring people, communities, infrastructure and businesses are resilient is clear. But, that population and geographic diversity is also what makes India so strong. This is a growing population being educated with the skills needed to prosper in the clean and climate-resilient industries of this and future decades," he told PTI.

Stiell, who was in India last week, called the country a "solar superpower" and urged it to develop an ambitious climate plan covering its entire economy saying an even stronger embrace of the global clean energy boom will supercharge its economic rise.

He lauded India's efforts to mitigate climate change, saying while some governments only talk, "India delivers". As part of its climate plans or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the UNFCCC in 2022, the country aims to reduce GDP emission intensity by 45 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels and achieve 50 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.

It has also committed to creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. According to government data, India's GDP emission intensity reduced by 36 per cent between 2005 and 2020.

As of December 2024, the share of non-fossil fuel power generation capacity in the country is already over 47 per cent and an additional carbon sink of 2.29 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent was created from 2005 to 2021.