India Cuts Power-sector CO₂ Emissions by 1% in 2025

India’s power plant, on September 18, reported 1% less carbon dioxide emissions during the first half of 2025 as compared to the same period last year, according to CREA. This achievement is being accounted as a big deal because in the past 40-plus years, the country’s power sector emissions have always risen, and this is the second time it has gone down. Since India has promised to achieve that half of its electricity will come from renewable sources like solar, wind, hydro and nuclear. This small drop in emissions shows that the country is moving towards its goal.
According to a recent report by CREA, there are three major reasons behind the drop. The foremost and important factor is more clean energy plants. By adding more solar, wind and hydro power, it has reduced dependency on coal-fired power plants. The second one is mild weather conditions. The weather was not hot and humid as usual, which lowered the demand for cooling and air conditioning. The third and the last one is good rains for hydropower, heavy rain fills up dams and reservoirs, which provides more water for hydropower generation and reduces the usage of coal.
India’s power sector usually releases more and more emissions driven by electricity demand and coal dependency. The only time when the decline has been recorded was during COVID in 2020, when the pandemic slowed the economy and people used less energy. This makes the 2025 emission drop special. This time it is not because of lockdown, but India is using more clean energy like solar, wind and hydro instead of coal.
India is the third-largest country in the world when it comes to emitting carbon; however, it went down when divided by population. The country has taken and is taking multiple steps in the form of schemes and subsidies to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. The small drop in emissions this year might not be very big, but this is a signal that India is progressing and moving away from coal and using more clean energy.
Government Initiatives
The government is already running several big, important programs to add clean energy, such as promoting the Green Hydrogen Mission, the National Solar Mission & Wind Energy Expansion, Transmission corridor strengthening for renewable integration, Incentives for battery storage and pumped hydro projects. If these initiatives continue, soon India will see carbon emissions going down often in the future.