India’s Climate Diplomacy: Coalition Leadership Across Solar, Resilience, and Biofuels
1. India’s climate diplomacy balances development for 1.4 billion people with climate goals, using low per-capita emissions and equity framing to argue for developmental space with ambition.
2. India commits to cut GDP emissions intensity 45% from 2005 by 2030 and targets net zero by 2070; early 50% installed non-fossil electricity capacity strengthens credibility internationally.
3. Diplomatic posture is described as shifting from defensive burden-sharing to proactive coalition building, offering deployable solutions, training, and affordability-oriented implementation lessons to partners.
4. Domestic action combines renewables expansion, efficiency programmes, and sustainable lifestyles, while regulators increasingly integrate climate risks to strengthen resilience and support green investments and transition finance.
5. International Solar Alliance (ISA) launched in 2015 with France; treaty-based headquarters in India boosts convening power and continuity within India’s diplomatic architecture.
6. ISA’s “Towards 1000” agenda targets mobilising $1 trillion and enabling 1,000 GW solar by 2030; it supports access via decentralised solar while avoiding long-term carbon lock-in.
7. ISA uses demand pooling, procurement aggregation, and standardisation to de-risk projects; training strengthens planning, installation, operations, and regulatory capacity across members.
8. ISA faces constraints: limited dominance in low-cost manufacturing, supply concentration, policy volatility, grid weakness, and permitting delays that can erode investor confidence despite pooled demand.
9. CDRI launched in 2019 to shift from response to prevention, focusing on cascading failures across power, transport, telecom, and water to maintain lifeline continuity during extremes.
10. CDRI develops toolkits, standards, and risk-assessment methodologies; resilient island initiatives support small islands facing cyclones, sea-level rise, and service disruptions in critical systems.
11. Resilience finance is framed around quantifying avoided losses, but fragmentation across ministries, weak hazard mapping, and difficulty converting plans into bankable projects slow execution.
12. Nature-based solutions—wetlands, mangroves, and urban green spaces—are treated as protective assets complementing engineered infrastructure and strengthening service reliability during shocks.
13. Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA) launched in 2023 to align policies and standards for sustainable biofuels; it links mitigation with energy security by reducing oil import dependence.
14. GBA targets hard-to-electrify sectors via SAF and advanced biodiesel; second/third-generation biofuels use residues and algae but require safeguards against land conversion and biodiversity loss.
15. Combined platforms (ISA, CDRI, GBA) widen India’s leadership across mitigation, adaptation, and hard-sector transition, but delivery depends on concessional finance, risk-sharing, storage, skills, standards, data, and just transition.
Must Know Terms :
1.Indian Ocean Trade Artery
Indian Ocean Trade Artery: The Indian Ocean is described as a trade-route “lifeline” carrying (i) about half of the world’s container ships, (ii) about one-third of global bulk cargo traffic, and (iii) about two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments. These are commonly used strategic metrics to show why disruption in the Indian Ocean quickly impacts global energy and freight prices.
2.Maritime Chokepoints
Maritime Chokepoints: Narrow passages where a disruption can block or delay huge trade flows. Key Indian Ocean-linked chokepoints include:
- Strait of Hormuz: In 2023, flows through Hormuz were “more than one-quarter” of total global seaborne traded oil; also around one-fifth of global LNG transited the strait.
- Strait of Malacca: In 2016, petroleum and other liquids transiting Malacca reached about 16 million barrels/day; at its narrowest point it is about 1.7 miles wide—making it a physical bottleneck.
3.Rapid Indian Ocean Warming
Rapid Indian Ocean Warming: Government climate assessment summaries report the tropical Indian Ocean has warmed faster than the global ocean average. Basin-wide sea surface temperature (SST) warming over 1951–2015 is cited at about 0.15°C per decade in the tropical Indian Ocean versus about 0.11°C per decade for globally averaged SST over the same period, implying faster heat accumulation in this basin.
4.Saltwater Intrusion
Saltwater Intrusion: A measurable coastal groundwater risk where saline water moves landward into freshwater aquifers. USGS explains the mechanism clearly: when too much freshwater is pumped from a coastal aquifer, the freshwater–saltwater interface migrates inland, and pumping wells near the interface can start producing saline-contaminated water. This directly affects drinking-water quality and irrigation suitability in coastal belts.
5.IUU Fishing
IUU Fishing (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated): FAO notes IUU fishing represents up to 26 million tonnes of fish caught annually. A widely used global estimate puts illegal/unreported catch in the range 11–26 million tonnes per year, with an estimated value of about US$10–23 billion, and notes that IUU can account for up to 20% of the world’s catch (higher in some fisheries). It is treated as both a conservation and transnational-crime problem.
6.CDRI (Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure)
CDRI: A global coalition launched by India at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York in September 2019 to strengthen resilience of infrastructure systems against climate and disaster risks. CDRI’s official “About” page states current scale as 53 member countries and 12 partner organizations, spanning governments and international bodies, to support knowledge exchange, research, and investment for disaster-resilient infrastructure.
MCQ
1. India’s 2030 emissions-intensity commitment in the passage is:
(a) 33% from 2019 levels (b) 40% from 2010 levels (c) 45% from 2005 levels (d) 50% from 1990 levels
2. India’s stated net-zero target year is:
(a) 2050 (b) 2060 (c) 2070 (d) 2100
3. The passage states India achieved 50% installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources:
(a) After 2030 (b) Exactly in 2030 (c) Earlier than the 2030 timeline (d) Not achieved
4. ISA is described as launched in:
(a) 2010 (b) 2015 (c) 2019 (d) 2023
5. ISA is described as launched with:
(a) Sweden (b) France (c) Japan (d) Brazil
6. ISA’s “Towards 1000” agenda targets:
(a) $100B and 100 GW by 2030 (b) $1T and 1,000 GW by 2030 (c) $1T and 500 GW by 2040 (d) $500B and 1,000 GW by 2050
7. ISA aims to improve bankability primarily through:
(a) Ending private investment (b) Demand pooling and de-risking support (c) Eliminating standards (d) Stopping decentralised solar
8. CDRI is described as launched in:
(a) 2015 (b) 2017 (c) 2019 (d) 2021
9. CDRI focuses on preventing:
(a) Only coastal erosion (b) Cascading failures across lifeline systems (c) Only industrial accidents (d) Only air pollution
10. GBA is described as announced in:
(a) 2015 (b) 2019 (c) 2021 (d) 2023
11. Biofuels are linked in the passage to energy security by:
(a) Increasing oil imports (b) Reducing oil import dependence (c) Eliminating trade (d) Replacing all electricity generation
12. Second/third-generation biofuels are described as using:
(a) Only food grains (b) Residues and algae (c) Only crude oil fractions (d) Only imported ethanol
13. A key sustainability risk for biofuels highlighted is:
(a) Higher solar tariffs (b) Land conversion and biodiversity loss (c) Increased snowfall (d) Lower grid demand
14. One Sun One World One Grid is described as requiring:
(a) No diplomacy (b) Decades of governance and infrastructure (c) Only local rooftop systems (d) Only carbon markets
15. India’s coalition stack spans:
(a) Only mitigation (b) Only adaptation (c) Mitigation, adaptation, and hard-sector transition (d) Only biodiversity protection
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