India Pledges to Reduce Carbon Emissions 3335 by 2030
India filed its climate action plan at the U.N. Climate Secretariat in Germany's Bonn Thursday, becoming one of the last major global economies to release its goals for tackling climate change ahead of December's landmark Paris Climate Conference. In the document, known as the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions INDCs, the Indian government said it would reduce carbon emissions relative to its GDP by 33 to 35 from 2005 levels by 2030, reports the Associated Press. India also pledged that 40 of the country's electricity would come from non-fossil fuel-based sources, such as wind and solar power, by 2030. All of the 190 countries participating in the COP21 talks in Paris are expected to publish INDCs, which list each country's carbon emission reduction goals. The targets are intended to hold nations accountable to preventing global temperatures from rising by more than 2C. Scientists say that temperatures must stop rising soon to prevent catastrophic harm to the planet. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes that investments in solar power will bring reliable electricity to an additional 300 million Indians, the Economic Times reports. Mahatma Gandhi's famous pronouncement, "Earth has enough resources to meet people's needs, but will never have enough to satisfy people's greed," inspired India's climate commitments, according the document. India is the world's third largest carbon emitter, behind the U.S. and China. Eighty-six countries have drafted INDCs to date ahead of the conference, according to the Climate Group.