India is moving in the fast lane. It has recently overtaken China as the most populous country in the world. The economy in the subcontinent is also growing at a high pace. The International Monetary Fund anticipates that the Indian economy will grow at least 6 percentage points in GDP per year over the next few years and thereby achieve the world's strongest growth. In the next 20 to 30 years, the country will be advancing just as fast as China has over the past ten years. Investors are therefore referring to India as "the next big thing".
Is India "the new China"?
However, these growth forecasts have a downside: rising CO2 emissions. Assuming that India will emit the same amount of CO2 per capita as China today over the next 20 to 30 years, India will become the largest CO2 emitter in the world. Global CO2 emissions would rise by more than 9 gigatonnes (GT) or more than 25 percent compared to today. Following these assumptions, the global goal of climate neutrality, also known as net zero, is moving further from reach. Net zero means that the same amount of greenhouse gases emitted are reabsorbed via reduction measures.