Comment from Vivek Wadhwa, distinguished fellow, Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program
Long considered climate policy’s problem case, India is exceeding targets and breaking records thanks to fast-advancing technology.
No country will contribute more to the rise in global carbon emissions than India. Energy consumption among its 1.4 billion people is rising fast, with 65% of the country’s electrical power currently generated from coal. The world’s filthiest fossil fuel – of which India consumes more than the United States and Japan combinedwill “remain ingrained under the fingernails of the nation” because of “politics, economics, and the complications of generating electricity”. So said The Economist in a 2018 briefing.
The British magazine’s briefing perfectly encapsulates the widespread view of India as climate policy’s problem child. But the conventional wisdom could not be more wrong. Little noticed in the West, India is undergoing a green-energy revolution – exceeding targets, breaking records and quickly making the age of cheap clean energy a reality.
Because of…
