Chart of the Week: India’s new climate goals – now comes the hard part

India’s 2070 net zero commitment at COP26 last week, along with its promise to increase its use of renewable energy in the coming decade, was widely praised. As the world’s third largest emitter of CO2, India’s success, or failure, to meet these targets will have big implications on the effort to limit global warming to +1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The country’s GDP per capita has grown faster than CO2 emissions per capita in recent years but achieving its targets will require the latter to fall, while the country continues to grow. This means that India will need to leapfrog certain technologies as it continues to industrialise. That will be a huge challenge, but it also creates investment opportunities, hence Prime Minister Modi’s request for advanced nations to contribute US$1 trillion towards climate action. This might sound a lot (and it is a lot), but for context, Fathom’s analysis shows that nearly US$20 trillion of capital will need to be scrapped or retrofitted globally to achieve the 1.5°C target. This is in addition to the trillions of dollars of green investment that will take place as the global economy grows and existing capital stock depreciates and is replaced.