In India’s long-term plan to cut emissions, coal still finds a place

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Editor's note: On Monday, environment, forest and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav unveiled India’s long-term strategy for pursuing low-emission development, on the sidelines of the ongoing COP27 climate conference at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. This is the first such plan developed by India and has been prepared in compliance with a requirement under the the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.  The 121-page document covers four focus areas for decarbonization: electricity, industries, urban design and transport. It also has a chapter on financing and another on forests.  It is, in effect, the first comprehensive strategy document of a nation of 1.3 billion people to deal with the biggest threat to mankind.  From that point of view, the document falls short of expectations. It reads like a compilation of existing policies of the central government, with a number of broad ideas—like “introduce biodiesel at a commercial scale”—that do not set out timelines, milestones or pathways on how such goals could be achieved. That said, the document does provide insights into the government’s evolving position on several contentious issues such as the use of coal …