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Dear readers,
Welcome to the Climate Weekly Digest by the Centre for Science and Environment’s Climate Change programme and Down to Earth.
Green public procurement (GPP) is emerging as a key strategy to increase the demand for low-carbon materials and support green industrialisation. CSE Sustainable Industrialisation Unit’s Sayantan Haldar and Parth Kumar explain how GPP can spur decarbonisation in India’s steel and cement sectors, which currently account for one-fifth of emissions from Indian industries. While technologies for green steel and low-carbon cement have already been developed, the demand for such technologies has remained weak, one of the primary obstacles being the “green premium” for environmentally-friendly production methods.
However, with greater demand and scaled production, this green premium can decline over time. Given that the Indian government is the largest buyer of steel and cement in the country, GPP can create predictable demand by mandating the use of low-carbon materials in government infrastructure projects. Haldar and Kumar point out that such predictable demand will also reduce investment risk and create market conditions for green production to become increasingly viable as the cost gap narrows.
In energy news, India’s Central Electricity Authority’s midterm review of the 20th Electric Power Survey (EPS) has highlighted how India is set to undergo a massive transition over the next decade as power demand rises and renewable energy expands rapidly. Down to Earth’s Puja Das writes that India’s peak electricity demand is projected to reach 459 GW while installed power generation capacity will double from 520 GW in January 2026 to 1,121 GW by 2035-36. Within this, solar photovoltaic (PV) will lead the transition, accounting for 509 GW or 45 per cent of total installed capacity.
While renewable energy generation will increase significantly over time, coal is expected to continue supplying more than half of the country’s electricity output during this period, and by 2035-36, is expected to remain the second-largest energy source with 315 GW of installed capacity. Overall, India’s non-fossil fuel power capacity is projected to reach 786 GW, or nearly 70 per cent of the country’s total installed capacity by 2035-36—indicating a critical shift towards clean energy.
Finally, the next episode of Carbon Politics will be released on Saturday, March 28. In this episode titled “The Sovereign Debt Crisis: A Hindrance to Climate Action”, I speak with Marina Zucker-Marques, a Senior Academic Researcher at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, about how high levels of sovereign debt can impede climate action in the Global South and the avenues for debt relief for developing countries.
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By - Upamanyu Das
Climate Change, CSE
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Death of winter: Heat arrives early, threatens to shrink Punjab and Haryana’s wheat harvest, 19 March 2026
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Death of winter: Himachal no longer shivering as weather patterns shift, 18 March 2026
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CLIMATE NEWS | SCIENCE| IMPACTS| POLITICS |
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Carbon Politics: A Video Podcast by CSE |
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