Is India Pulling its Weight?

Ahead of the Conference of Parties (COP24) where countries will first take stock of climate action post Paris, the paper "Is India pulling its weight?" by Aniruddh Mohan and Timon Wehnert (Wuppertal Institute) assesses India's progress on its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and future energy plans. The authors find that, although India is well on track to meet its NDC pledges, these targets were rather modest given previous context. Furthermore, there is considerable uncertainty around India's energy policy post 2030 and if current plans for energy futures materialise, the Paris Agreement's 2 degrees goal will be almost certainly unachievable.

India's role in international climate politics has shifted from obstructionism to leadership particularly following the announcement of withdrawal by the United States from the Paris Agreement, but analysis reveals that India's 'hard' actions on the domestic front are inconsistent with its 'soft' actions in the international climate policy arena. "Going forward, all countries are likely to face increasing calls for stronger mitigation action to bridge the gap towards the Paris Agreement targets. For India we see potentials to align the country's foreign policy ambitions and international climate commitments with domestic energy realities," says Timon Wehnert.

Aniruddh Mohan was a visiting fellow at the Wuppertal Institute in 2016 and 2017 within the Alexander von Humboldt Climate Protection Fellowship programme.

The paper was published in the Climate Policy journal and is available under the link below.