IndiaтАФone of the fastest growing economies in the world todayтАФunderstands that transitioning to a low carbon economy is fundamental to advancing human development, while also ensuring a stable climate and clean environment. Therefore, as part of its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, India has declared that it wishes to achieve 40% cumulative electric power generation capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.
Simultaneously, India also wants to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through large scale reforestation and restoration. By 2022, IndiaтАЩs target is to install Renewable Energy capacity of 175 GW.
However, achieving these goals requires land, which is a limited resource in a country that supports 1.3 billion people and close to 8% of the EarthтАЩs biodiversity in less than 2% of the EarthтАЩs land mass. Expanding renewable energy is urgently required, but if not sited properly, its massive footprint could have devastating impacts on ecosystems, biodiversity and local communities, while also undermining the goal of large-scale reforestation.
FINDING WIN-WIN SOLUTIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND NATURE
At The Nature Conservancy, we believe in creating science-based, win-win solutions that advance development while also conserving the environment. We are working with partnersтАФCentre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP)тАФand in support of the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to bring forward a solution to the challenge of sustainably transitioning to renewable energy.
By strategically planning the use of land, India can ensure that renewable energy projects are set up in places with high potential for power generation, but which also avoid harm to nature, wildlife or people. We conducted a country-wide analysis which revealed that India would need close to 11.7 million hectares (85,000 km2) of land to meet its renewable energy targets by 2022тАФan area equal to the size of Austria or the state of Telangana in India.
If renewable energy projects were advanced with the singular aim of maximizing resource potential, it would threaten 1.16 million hectares of forest land and 5.06 million hectares of agricultural land by conversion.
Fortunately, this need not be the case if careful land planning is undertaken. In fact, our analysis shows that India has 12 times the land needed to achieve solar and wind energy goals by using degraded lands with low agricultural or wildlife value and reforestation potential.