India is requesting $70 million in financing from the multilateral organisation Climate Investment Funds. Of this, $5 million would be towards technical assistance, including project preparation grants and capacity building, says the draft investment plan for the proposed Renewable Energy Integration Programme, released recently for public comments by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
The ‘Renewable Energy Integration – Investment Plan’ or REI-IP document says the proposed projects would mobilise nearly $1.1 billion from ADB, World Bank and IFC.
The idea is to “facilitate seamless integration of a larger proportion of renewable energy sources”. The document speaks of a three-pronged strategy: deployment of energy storage systems to increase grid flexibility; fortification of infrastructure to boost RE; and technical assistance across the RE grid integration value chain.
How India’s greenhouse gas emissions stack up globally
India is the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases globally. In 2023, its emissions included 4.41 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to the Emissions Gap Report 2024, recently released by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
China (16 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) and USA (5.97 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) were the top two emitters.
However, there is another way of looking at India — from the Indian standpoint. In 2023, India accounted for only 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, compared with China’s 30 per cent and US’s 11 per cent. India’s per capita emissions were 2.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, far lower than not just China (11) and US (18), but also the European Union (7.3), the Russian Federation (19) and Brazil (6).
Also, India’s historical emissions, between 1850 and 2022, have been put at 83 giga tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, accounting for just 3 per cent of world’s historical emissions. The biggest culprits in this are the US (527 giga tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and 20 per cent), EU (301 giga tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, 12 per cent) and China (300 giga tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, 12 per cent).