Before leaving to attend the U.N. climate talks in Lima, Peru, India’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that India would be focused on boosting its renewable power capacity fivefold rather than cutting carbon emissions. With hundreds of millions without access to electricity, India cannot afford to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the expense of economic growth, he added.
He said he was optimistic industrialized nations would agree to shoulder more of the burden to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, given that they had been polluting the atmosphere with fossil fuels for decades before developing nations did.
More than 60 percent of India’s installed 250 gigawatt capacity today comes from burning coal. India doubled its coal tax to 100 rupees per ton and will use the funds generated for projects that would boost the country’s solar power capacity to 100 gigawatts by 2020.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
