New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) While western countries continue to focus on India’s coal-fired power plants in the debate on climate change, what is being overlooked is the rapid rate at which the country is adding to its renewable energy capacity, which includes both solar, hydel, and wind power, an article said.
Many of today’s high-income economies industrialised on coal for over a century before shifting to cleaner energy. India is attempting to do both simultaneously, expanding electricity access and industrial growth for 1.4 billion people while building one of the largest clean-energy systems in the world, according to the article in The Diplomat.
At the 2015 Paris climate conference, India pledged that 40 per cent of its installed power capacity would come from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. It reached that goal in November 2021, almost a decade early. After raising its target to 50 per cent, India crossed that threshold in June 2025, this time five years ahead of schedule. As those figures suggest, India’s renewables expansion is significant. India’s non-fossil fuel energy capacity passed 300 gigawatts in July 2026, more than half of its total installed capacity, it said.
The article highlighted that the country added a record 55 gigawatts of clean capacity in the 2025–26 financial year and now ranks third in the world for installed renewable energy. On July 29, 2025, renewables met more than half of India’s electricity demand.
However, some challenges still have to be overcome. Although more than half of India’s installed capacity is now non-fossil, these sources produce under a third of the electricity the country consumes. Solar output peaks in the afternoon while demand often peaks in the evening, and the storage and transmission networks needed to bridge this gap are still under construction. Until they are complete, coal will remain the backbone of reliable energy supply. Clean capacity is being added quickly, but demand is rising almost as fast, the article observed.
It underscores that steel and aluminium are among the hardest sectors to decarbonise. Indian exporters now face carbon border rules in key markets. The Global Trade Research Initiative estimates that Indian steel and aluminium exporters may need to cut prices by 15 to 22 per cent to remain competitive in Europe. Smaller firms struggle the most with the cost of measuring and reporting emissions.
“Finance is the final, perhaps most binding, constraint. A transition of this scale requires enormous investment, much of it in grids and storage with long payback periods. At COP29, India objected to the new climate finance goal of $300 billion a year, which was less than one-fourth of the $1.3 trillion that developing countries had demanded,” the article pointed out.
Still, India continues to push forward. Its national carbon market became operational in January 2025, providing industry with a price signal to reduce emissions. The growth of India’s fossil fuel emissions is projected to have slowed sharply in 2025. Energy transitions are rarely linear, as recent Western experience shows, it said.
–IANS
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