Indian and World Biogas Associations call India to include biogas in its climate action plans

As part of the WBA’s ongoing campaign to ensure all the biggest emitters commit to grow their biogas industries as part of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the two associations have sent a joint letter to Mr Prakash Javadekar, India’s Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. NDCs represent the countries’ plans to tackle climate change and set legally binding climate targets to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 °C. The letter urges the Indian Government to consider biogas in its strategy to tackle climate change and highlights the huge environmental but also socioeconomic contributions that this circular economy technology can make.

As the fourth largest GHG emitter, India has a key role to play in reducing the gap between current national targets and policies to tackle climate change and the Paris Agreement target. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has determined that global GHG emissions need to be cut by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 for the Paris Agreement goals to be met. In 2017, the first round of NDCs submitted by 192 of the 196 signatories was only delivering 1%. The recent announcements from countries such as the US, China, Japan, and South Korea have improved global warming predictions by 0.2°C, which are now estimated to be 2.4°C by the end of the century. Nonetheless, warming based on the current targets and pledges, even under the most optimistic assumptions, is still well above the 1.5˚C temperature limit.

Moreover, it is important to note that the biggest improvement in projected warming derives from the updated 2030 NDC targets. This demonstrates the importance of stronger near-term targets. Biogas and AD, as a ready-to-use-technology, can deliver immediate decarbonisation and are therefore essential in achieving such short-term targets (less than 9 years!).

Along with the letter, we have shared with Mr Javadekar the WBA’s latest report Biogas: Pathways to 2030. The report forms a policy tool kit aimed at helping stakeholders and policy makers manage, reduce, and recycle their organic wastes as a circular economy to both cut methane emissions from them and maximise their value, helping to put the world back on track to deliver on the ambitions of the Paris agreement.