India has taken a key step forward in its journey towards net-zero with the country now getting over half of its energy from non-fossil fuels, AFP reported on August 24.

In July, the Indian Minister of Renewable Energy, Pralhad Joshi announced that the world’s most populous country had reached its Paris Agreement goal five years early with the 50% clean energy milestone.

However, for the world’s third-largest greenhouse has polluter, a towering mountain must still be climbed if India is to reach its net-zero goal by 2070.

India remains heavily reliant on coal energy as the world's second-biggest consumer of coal, trailing only China. In fact, India actually increased its coal production by 5% in 2024.

An industrializing economy experiencing terrific growth, pressure for power generation is growing on New Delhi. In the 2024-2025 fiscal year, India’s economy increased by 6.5%, making it the world's fastest growing major economy, the BBC reported.

As it seeks to transition away from coal, India has leaned into a fuel switching approach, attempting to ramp up gas use in place of coal. Currently, gas comprises 6% of India’s energy mix but New Delhi is targeting 15% by 2030.

Earlier this year, India added its eighth LNG import terminal and demand for the super-chilled fuel is expected to surpass 37mn tonnes per year by 2030 and 88mn tpy by 2050, according to a Wood Mackenzie report.

Indeed, India is pushing hard to transition from coal to gas, but some environmentalists worry it is not doing enough to switch to renewables.

Currently, half of 484.8 GW of installed power capacity is from non-fossil fuels. Solar has led the charge with 119 GW. Hydro and wind provide India’s second and third largest sources of green energy. While nuclear power comprises just 2% of the energy mix.

However, India continues to face bottlenecks in its renewable energy production, most notably battery storage, where the country’s capacity is only 505MWh.

With India adding about 25-30 GW each year of renewable energy, reaching its climate targets and reducing its reliance on fossil fuels will largely depend on making key steps forward in the country’s battery storage capacity.