Low-carbon electricity generation increased by almost 5 percentage points over the last decade, sustained by a strong increase of wind and solar PV that also compensated for a slight decline of hydropower share. The share of coal-fired electricity generation increased from 2010 to 2020 overall but has declined from a peak mid‑decade primarily thanks to the surge of wind and solar PV. Despite progress with a reduction of almost 15% over the decade, the CO2 emissions intensity of India still remains the highest of the 15 countries analysed, at almost 700 g CO2/kWh, as the power mix is still dominated by coal with a share in excess of 70%.
While the progress of electrification has been encouraging over the last decade, in particular in the buildings and industry sectors, the efforts need to be strengthened to keep the progression in line with the decarbonisation goals. The reduction in the traditional use of biomass in the residential sector by increasing electrification is a clear example. Similarly, the efforts for decarbonising the power mix need to be strongly increased, with appropriate measures that must be put in place to achieve the envisaged deployment of 450 gigawatts of renewables capacity by 2030.