India’s climate dilemma will hang over Modi’s next five years
Modi, heading into his third term with a weakened mandate, wants India to embrace a new “green era” at the forefront of climate diplomacy and clean technology.
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To succeed, he’ll need to balance those ambitions against a need to sustain growth and satisfy rapidly accelerating electricity demand, leaning on a fraying power system still heavily dependent on coal.
Modi, who has cast himself as climate champion for much of the past decade, will be under pressure to make faster progress toward existing green targets, including pledges to hit net zero by 2070, install a mammoth 500 gigawatts of non-fossil energy by the end of the decade, and corral a global alliance on solar power that aims to secure $1 trillion in investment.
But significant expansion in clean energy — India added over 100 GW of renewable capacity during past 10 years of Modi’s government — has not been enough to satisfy steep demand growth and the limitations of the country’s transmission and distribution networks.
With energy security a priority, coal still accounts for roughly three-quarters of output today and its use continues to rise. India plans to add close to 90 GW of coal projects by 2032 — about 63% more than the existing blueprint, published in May 2023.
New Delhi has expanded coal mining to a record, extended the lives of power plants and
