India is currently at the risk of becoming an outcast on matters related to climate action. This is because it has not yet committed to a net zero target year.

The Paris Agreement underlines the need for net zero, requiring states to ‘achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century’.

Over 50% of the global economy has already committed to net zero by 2050.

China is the world’s largest carbon emitter and has announced that a net zero target for 2060. The U.S., as the second biggest emitter with large historical emissions, returned to the Paris Agreement with an ambitious 2050 net zero plan and said that it will decarbonise its power sector by 2035. The European Union member-states have committed themselves to reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030 over 1990 levels.

But the world’s third-largest emitter India has neither announced the net zero year nor has it submitted an updated climate plan to the UN, with raised carbon-reduction ambition, as required by the Paris agreement every five years.