2024 was the hottest year ever recorded in India and globally. The average temperature was above normal in all months of the year (except March), with temperatures over 1°C above normal in several Indian states (IMD, 2025). While the government reported 459 heat-wave-related deaths in 2024 (IMD, 2025), others reported 733 deaths and over 40,000 heatstroke cases (Heat Watch, 2024). On average, more than 1,000 Indians die every year due to heat waves (de Bont et al., 2024), while others estimate that a single day of heat wave across the country can result in 3,400 deaths (Gadgil & Narang, 2025). Since 1990, one-quarter of global heat-wave-related excess deaths have occurred in India (Zhao et al., 2021). About 57% of Indian districts are currently estimated to be at high or very high risk from extreme heat (Prabhu et al., 2025). About 75% of India’s workforce is exposed to heat at work, and 34 million job losses are projected due to heat stress by 2030 (World Bank, 2022). Climate change is making heat waves more frequent and extreme in India (Zachariah et al., 2024).
At the same time, India is a major carbon emitter, third in the world after China and the United States. The power sector remains a significant source of emissions, and electricity demand is increasing at the rate of 9% annually, already surpassing government estimates for 2030 (Agarwal et al., 2025). This highlights a key challenge in accurately estimating emission trajectories in a rapidly growing economy like India (Chaturvedi et al., 2024). Without a rapid transition and clear policy measures, India is set to become the leading polluter by the end of the century (Acharya et al., 2025).
Key economic and development indicators in India — such as energy access and industrialization — are poised to increase national emissions, presenting substantial challenges to policymakers and experts. For example, the industrial sector is a large consumer of power, but it also contributes to one-third of India’s GDP and employs over 121 million people (MoEFCC, 2025). The majority of future emissions are projected to come from infrastructure, buildings, and vehicles yet to be built, underscoring India’s central role in charting the global clean energy transition. Internationally, India leads the clean energy transition through the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.
India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has announced a target of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2070. India is likely to meet its previous national target of reducing emission intensity by 45% compared to 2005 levels and to power 50% of its energy from renewable sources before 2030 (MoEFCC, 2025). The pace of progress is also astounding: Solar power capacity increased 35 times, from nearly 3 GW to 92 GW, while wind energy doubled in the last decade (MoEFCC, 2025). The Indian government provided electricity access to 11,000 Indians every hour in the first 18 months following the launch of the national program in 2017 (Ghosh & Dash, 2025). Yet, renewables have not kept pace with the rising demand. Coal is expected to remain the dominant source of electricity generation, although it is expected to decline from its current 75% of energy generation in India to 50% by 2035 (Das et al., 2025).
But India’s emissions remain low on a per-capita basis and are primarily driven by the need to provide its population with basic access to electricity. India is behind on meeting its targets for 19 of the 33 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with many districts likely to never meet the targets on the SDGs even well after 2030 (Subramanian et al., 2023), highlighting the substantial scale of sustainable development challenges in India.
While India has achieved universal access to electricity, over two-thirds of the population face power outages at least once a day, with many in populous states such as Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam, and Bihar reporting extended blackouts and voltage fluctuations (Agrawal et al., 2020). Although the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) aims to install 30 GW of rooftop solar by 2027, only 16 GW was installed as of January 2025, with the majority of installations limited to a few states in the west and south of India (Patil et al., 2025).
Issues of access, equity, and a just transition present political and administrative challenges to the largest democracy in the world. The median age of an Indian voter is about 30, and policies have to align with the development aspirations of its young citizens.
For example, climate-induced migration is an emerging challenge, not just from rural to urban areas, but also across states in India. Moreover, India faces financial constraints and limited access to advanced technologies for scaling up climate action. Despite policy support, behavior change has not met the scale of the challenge. For example, less than 4% of farmers across India practice sustainable agriculture, despite government support (Gupta et al., 2021). Cultural preferences, lack of awareness, and weak policy enforcement are key barriers to the adoption of mitigation practices (MoEFCC, 2025). A lack of regional and local data on people’s behavior increases uncertainty in accounting for emissions and hinders targeted policy interventions in key sectors, such as agriculture and transportation.
Behavior changes, such as those exemplified by the Mission “Lifestyle for Environment” (LIFE) launched by Prime Minister Modi, can potentially lead to a 14% reduction in emissions (Das et al., 2025). Setting AC temperature at 24°C compared to 21°C, living in medium-sized houses rather than larger houses, increasing the use of public transport, promoting shared mobility, and improving recycling rates by 25% in industries can result in 14% lower emissions by 2050 compared to the status quo. Climate action spans multiple levels of governance across different states and sectors in India.
This new report is based on our fifth nationally representative survey in India, conducted in 2025, enabling us to track changes in public responses over time since our first study in 2011. New survey questions on the causes of global warming, public participation in social demonstrations, and willingness to join such demonstrations to demand action from leaders, as well as information sources for extreme weather events, interest in the news, and other factors, provide a more comprehensive understanding of Indians’ engagement with climate change. It is important to note that some data collection overlapped with the record-breaking and unusually early heat wave that began in India in early April 2025.
No single study can do justice to the richness and diversity of Indian society as well as the complexity of climate change. Nonetheless, this report provides an in-depth and rigorous examination of some key dimensions of these issues in India. This research is intended to contribute to both scientific and public understanding and dialogue about these issues and provide useful information for Indians working in the climate space.
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