Publication Year: 2025
Researching Climate Policy in Uncertain Times
Visualising the Heat Crisis: A Guide for Nonprofits
What Does Net-Zero Mean? Defining Goals Aligned With National Contexts
Introduction
Net-zero emissions targets have emerged as a central pillar of global climate ambition. As of June 2025 (following the US’s second withdrawal from the Paris Agreement), 142 countries have announced—or are considering—net-zero targets. Together, they account for nearly 76% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 84% of the world’s population. However, these targets vary in scopes and timelines, reflecting differences in historical responsibility, development needs, domestic capabilities, political realities, and economic structures. Developed economies like the European Union and Japan target reaching net-zero by 2050, while China aims to reach it by 2060. India has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2070.
As India gradually pivots towards a net-zero pathway, it is crucial to establish a clear, shared understanding among national and sub-national governments, policymakers, regulators, industries, and civil society of what ‘net-zero’ truly means in the domestic context. Without this coherence, strategies risk being fragmented or misaligned across levels of governance and sectors of the economy.
This issue brief outlines key considerations that can help shape a comprehensive definition of net-zero emissions for India, not by prescribing implementation strategies, but by deconstructing net-zero targets by their constituent elements necessary for clarity, comparability, and accountability. The brief discusses these elements across four aspects: [1] Targets reflect “what” the entity aims to achieve and whether interim milestones are included. [2] Scope defines “what all is covered”. To put into perspective, two entities may share the same headline target but differ significantly in coverage. [3] Sinks and Offsets clarify how residual emissions will be addressed, and what forms of carbon removals are deemed acceptable, credible, and verifiable. [4] Governance encompasses institutional arrangements for reporting, monitoring, and review. Ensuring that those responsible for delivering on targets are held to account through appropriate mechanisms, incentives, and oversight structures.
Taken together, these dimensions form the building blocks of a robust net-zero definition. The brief’s objective is to support India in deciding the design of the end-goal itself, rather than outlining the path to reach it.
The Climate Challenge as a Development Opportunity
What Shapes Green Industrial Policy Objectives and Design? A Comparative Policy Analysis of Renewable Energy Auctions in India and South Africa
Abstract
The article compares the renewable energy auctions of India and South Africa, two countries with different institutional approaches to governing markets and different political-economic constraints, to understand how these factors shaped similar policy objectives to be prioritised differently through their auction design. It finds that India’s market-based governance approach and its electricity sector politics resulted in the prioritisation of electricity price objectives while South Africa’s developmental state approach prioritised industry localisation and employment creation objectives through policy design. The survival of India’s politics-centered approach over South Africa’s problem-centered policy design has implications for countries implementing multiple-objective policies.
Read moreThe Indian Carbon Market: Institutional, Regulatory, and Market Considerations
Introduction
India is at a critical juncture in its climate policy journey. In the near-term, it aims to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% below 2005 levels by 2030. Its longer-term goal is to reach net-zero emissions by 2070. Meeting these targets will require a combination of policy interventions, technological advancements, regulatory mechanisms, and financial support.
As part of this broader transition, India is developing a national carbon market under the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act 2022 (See Fig. 1 for a timeline of developments around the CCTS). The Carbon Credit and Trading Scheme (CCTS), notified by the Ministry of Power (MoP) in June 2023, lays the foundation for a carbon market that seeks to balance economic growth with climate goals.
The effectiveness of the CCTS will depend on several interlinked factors- clear governance structures, credible price signals, transparent processes, institutional capacity, and harmonisation with existing domestic programs and global frameworks. Recognising the complexity of these issues, Prayas Energy Group (PEG) and Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC) convened a closed-door roundtable under the Chatham House rules on March 20, 2025 in New Delhi, which brought together participants from across policy think tanks, regulatory consultancies, industry, industry associations, and civil society organisations. It served as a platform to exchange diverse perspectives on the institutional, regulatory, and market-related elements of the CCTS. This brief reflects the key insights that emerged from the discussion, highlighting seven broad yet interlinked issues central to the design and operationalisation of the CCTS.
