Environment and Disaster Management › Climate negotiations and finance

India's climate policy: NDCs, net zero and adaptation

India's Nationally Determined Contribution, the State action plans, adaptation from the city to the village, and the forest carbon sink. Prelims has asked about Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.

Foundation note: Net zero 2070 and the National Action Plan on Climate Change

Showing 1 of 5 articles, those that changed from 1 to 31 August 2026.Show all

The forest carbon sink

Prelims and Mains

India's forest carbon sink is the additional store of carbon in forest and tree cover that its sink target counts from 2005, reported in tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

A sink is credited only where it can be demonstrated, so the way India measures its forests decides what it is able to report.
The Forest Survey of India (FSI) assesses forest and tree resources every two years and publishes the India State of Forest Report.
Because forest cover is counted by canopy rather than by origin, a plantation and a natural forest enter the figure alike.
The Green India Mission and Nagar Van Yojana are among the schemes through which the Centre supports States in raising cover.

What changed

13 Aug 2026newly added
- Approved offset methods under India's carbon market now include afforestation of degraded mangrove habitat and improved rice cultivation.
- The India State of Forest Report 2023 puts forest and tree cover at 25.17 per cent of the country, made up of 21.76 per cent forest cover and 3.41 per cent tree cover.
- No shared register stops the same land being counted for a carbon project, a green credit, compensatory afforestation and a restoration scheme at once.
Mains: a quantified sink pledge needs a record of land, parcel by parcel, that does not yet exist.
Frontline, 13 Aug 2026: India's NDC for 2031-35 commits to a forest and tree cover carbon sink of 3.5 to 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2035, while the data needed to verify it does not yet exist. (opens in a new tab)

See also: MISHTI · The Green India Mission

Nationally Determined Contribution: The climate pledge a country files under the Paris Agreement, saying what it will do by a given year, and revises upward over time.

Emission intensity: Greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product, so it can fall even while total emissions rise.

Biennial Transparency Report: The report every two years in which a country tells the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change its emissions and its progress under the Paris Agreement.

Urban heat island: A city noticeably warmer than the countryside around it, because concrete and tarmac store heat, traffic and machines add their own, and there is little greenery to cool the air.

Global warming potential: How much a gas warms the planet over a given period compared with the same mass of carbon dioxide.

Gram Panchayat Development Plan: The annual plan a gram panchayat draws up with its Gram Sabha, setting out the works it will take up and the funds for them.

Hydrofluorocarbons: Refrigerant gases used in air conditioners, refrigerators and cold chains, many with high global warming potential.