India's real recorded emissions have risen more than five times over this period.
Source: Global Carbon Budget, via Our World in Data
Rising temperatures
India's annual mean temperature has risen by approximately 0.9°C between 1901 and 2024, with warming accelerating sharply since the 1990s.
Source: Data For India, IMD records
2024 was India's warmest year on record since 1901, at 0.65°C above the 1991 to 2020 average. Ten of the fifteen warmest years on record have occurred since 2010.
Source: India Meteorological Department
Maximum daytime temperatures are rising faster than nighttime lows, close to 1°C per 100 years, with the steepest warming in southern India.
Source: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
Wildlife under pressure
India added 13 animal and 13 plant species as Critically Endangered in the IUCN's October 2025 update alone, following 8 animal and 7 plant species added in 2024.
Source: IUCN Red List
India's three vulture species lost over 99 percent of their population between the late 1980s and 2000s after a veterinary drug residue in cattle carcasses proved fatal to them. Recovery remains slow and all three remain Critically Endangered.
Source: Species conservation records
Not every trend is downward: India's wild tiger population recovered from 1,411 in 2006 to 3,682 in 2022, now 74 percent of the world's wild tigers, credited to sustained conservation investment since 1973.
Source: Project Tiger census data
India holds nearly 8 percent of global flora and 7.5 percent of global fauna on just 2.4 percent of the world's land area, making its biodiversity losses disproportionately significant globally.
Source: IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025
Floods and displacement
Between 2015 and 2024, 32.32 million people were internally displaced within India by disasters, mostly floods and storms.
Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
2024 alone saw 5.4 million displacements, the highest in over a decade, including 2.4 million from severe monsoon flooding in Assam, where the Brahmaputra affected 30 districts.
Source: IDMC Global Report 2025
India could face up to 45 million climate migrants by 2050, nearly triple current levels, according to 2025 modelling.
Source: CEED India, 2025 Climate Story
In Bihar, an estimated 80 percent of flood affected farmers migrate to states like Punjab and Delhi, often splitting families for extended periods.
Source: CEED India
Extreme weather cost India an estimated $180 billion between 1993 and 2022, the sixth highest climate loss total of any country in the world.
Source: CEED India
What the government is doing
Renewable energy targets, repeatedly raised
India's original 2015 target of 40% non fossil power capacity by 2030 was met nine years early. The revised target rose to 50% by 2030, and in March 2026 India set a new goal of 60% non fossil capacity by 2035. As of February 2026, non fossil sources already supply 52.57% of installed capacity.
Panchamrit, the five point plan announced at COP26
500 GW of non fossil energy capacity by 2030, cutting projected emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030, reducing emissions intensity by 45% from 2005 levels by 2030, and reaching net zero by 2070.
Real, measurable renewable growth
Total renewable capacity reached 253.96 GW by November 2025, up 23% year on year. Solar capacity alone grew over 41% in the same period. Independent analysts at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air suggest India may hit its 2035 clean power target before 2030.
Where independent assessment disagrees
Climate Action Tracker rates India's overall policy trajectory as Insufficient, meaning if every country followed India's current approach, global warming would reach 2 to 3°C. The National Electricity Plan's coal capacity additions are the main reason cited, alongside a rise in projected 2030 emissions of 8 to 11% versus the previous assessment.
Massive solar expansion and among the cheapest solar power in the world. Coal still dominates and emissions rise with growth, but emissions per person remain far below Western levels. Highly exposed to heat and floods.
Climate target
Net zero by 2070, 60% non fossil power capacity by 2035
Progress, but not yet enough EditorialTrajectory: Off track Editorial
Figures above are sourced individually as shown. Historical emissions trend covers 1990 to 2023.
