Economy & Market

Is India on track to meet its Paris commitments

Published

8 years ago

January 12, 2019

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The country may not meet its targets completely but is within reach to achieve a substantial part of it.

India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounted for 6.5 per cent of 2014 global total, according to data from the World Resources Institute. This made the country the fourth-largest emitter after China, the United States and the European Union. Per capita, India’s emission from fossil fuels (in 2017) is by far the lowest among major economies:

India: 1.83 MT carbon dioxide (CO2)
China: 7.72 MT in China
The EU: 6.97 MT
The US: 15.74 MT

Despite its low per capita emissions, India has made significant commitments in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015 as part of the Paris Agreement.

The Climate Action Tracker website has rated its climate efforts as "2-degree compatible" = that can contribute to limiting warming by the end of the century to 2? Celsius; making India the only major economy to be so highly rated. India’s headline Paris pledge was to reduce the emission intensity of its gross domestic product (GHG emissions per unit GDP) by 33-35 per cent over 2005 levels by 2030. Assessing progress towards this target is tough: Official emissions data, which India communicates to the UNFCCC, is available until 2014 only. Also, data is available only for select years (1994, 2000, 2007, 2010 and 2014), not including the baseline year 2005.

This data (in conjunction with World Bank data for GDP) shows an unwelcome trend: A decrease in the rate of reduction of emission intensity during 2010-14 from 2007-10, as emissions continued to grow unabated despite a weakening of economic growth. More recent unofficial estimates indicate that this trend may have been temporary.

India’s annual GDP growth was only about 1 percentage point slower than the average in the years before, emission growth rate nearly halved, from 4.8 per cent before 2015 to 2.3 per cent in 2015 and 2.9 per cent in 2016 and 2017, according to the 2018 edition of the Trends in Global CO2 and Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions report by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. These fluctuations point to the perils of the assumption that the decoupling of economic growth from emissions is a straightforward process.

In its second Biennial Update Report submitted to the UNFCCC in 2019, India claimed to have reduced the emission intensity of its economy by 21 per cent by 2014. But it didn’t specify emissions data for 2005 or the GDP data series used to arrive at the conclusion.

Nevertheless, the figure indicates that India is on track to meet the 2030 emission intensity commitment. An analysis by US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis has gone so far as to argue that the figure indicates that India could meet its target a decade early.

A study by Navroz Dubash and others published last year in Environmental Research Letters analysed seven previously published energy / emission scenarios together with current policies, and similarly argued that India’s economy-emission trajectory was consistent with the Paris Agreement.

A note on emission intensity is in order. It is a quantity that has decreased over time in many economies. One study shows CO2 emission intensity of the global economy has been steadily falling since at least 1990. This is not just due to, say, an increasing usage of renewable energy or energy efficiency, but also due to the change in the sectoral composition of the economy as it shifts from industry to (often less energy-intensive) services.

There is little clarity as to the extent to which the claimed 21 per cent reduction between 2005 and 2014 is due to concerted climate action. For comparison, in its own NDC, China claimed to have reduced the CO2 emission intensity of its GDP by 33.8 per cent during the same period.

In addition, India’s NDC also committed to ensuring that 40 per cent of its installed power capacity is from non-fossil sources (renewables, hydroelectric and nuclear) by 2030. There is an interim target of 175 GW of non-hydel renewable power by 2022 (up from 35 GW in 2015). Non-fossil sources accounted for about 37 per cent of India’s power capacity, as of September 2019, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). Thus, the larger 2030 target seems like an easy one to achieve. Indeed the CEA’s projections yield an installed non-fossil capacity equivalent to nearly 65 per cent of the total capacity by 2029-30. However, on the interim target of 175 GW of non-hydro renewables by 2022, despite strong initial progress, the Government’s plans appear to be floundering.

A recent CRISIL report indicated that India may fall short of this interim target by as high as 42 per cent. If at all the target can be met, it will require more concerted effort by the government and the private sector. India’s final key pledge at Paris was the creation of an additional carbon sink equivalent to 2.5-3 billion tonne CO2 by 2030 through additional forest and tree cover. Analysts agreed that progress on the forestry goal was far from robust.

The Green India Mission, which seeks to work towards the target is woefully underfunded and has been regularly missing its annual targets. This has rendered the fulfilment of the 2030 pledge hard if not altogether unlikely. Thus India is making reasonable progress on two of the three key pledges it made in Paris. The Government needs to correct course where its policy is faltering. It also needs to invest in generating data more regularly than the bare minimum required by the UNFCCC so that way claims can be validated and data analysed to understand the underlying trends.

Courtesy: Kapil Subramanian for Down to Earth Updated on Octoebr 23, 2019 to reflect that the India’s pledge was for 2030, not 2020.

Economy & Market

Leonard Unveils Dual-Head Robotic Arm for Hazardous Industrial Demolition

Published

5 days ago

October 30, 2026

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Leonard unveils Descender Duo, a dual-head robotic demolition arm designed to improve industrial safety and reduce shutdown time by up to 50 per cent.

Industrial robotics and refractory services specialist Leonard has launched Descender Duo, a dual-head robotic demolition arm designed to improve safety, accelerate maintenance and reduce shutdown times in hazardous industrial environments. The system made its debut at Lisahally Power Station in Northern Ireland, removing 25 tonnes of slag material within hours.

Developed for the cement, metals, waste-to-energy and petrochemical industries, Descender Duo enables remote-controlled refractory demolition, anchor cutting and welding, and refractory spraying inside boilers, calciners and silos. Its vertical-access design eliminates the need for personnel to enter confined, high-risk spaces during these operations.

Weighing less than two tonnes, the pre-assembled system requires an access opening of just 1.2 m². Supported by an external overhead hoist, it uses electrically operated hydraulic stabilising legs to secure itself inside vessels. The robotic arm offers 360-degree rotation and is suited to vessels approximately 9 m in diameter, with its operating reach extendable through strategically positioned access points.

Equipped with two independently controlled robotic heads, Descender Duo can perform identical or different tasks simultaneously, including refractory demolition, anchor cutting and spraying. Its remote-control system incorporates live camera feeds, allowing operators to monitor operations without entering hazardous environments.

According to Leonard, the technology can deliver time savings of up to 50 per cent compared with manual methods. Its ability to operate at temperatures exceeding 100°C allows maintenance to begin as early as 24 hours after burner shutdown. An all-electric power supply further supports cleaner and more cost-efficient operations.

First Deployment Demonstrates Shutdown Efficiency

The system was first deployed at Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor’s (BWSC) Lisahally Power Station in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The facility generates electricity from grade C waste wood, supplying approximately 40,000 homes and businesses.

Leonard and BWSC collaborated to develop a customised solution for the plant’s 26-metre furnace, where extensive external pipework created significant access challenges.

Mark Leonard, Managing Director, Leonard, said, “It required new thinking and rather than step away from the problem we were committed to solving it for the customer, with the customer. We’re relentless in our approach to tackling complex challenges, head-on. We took our years of cement plant experience, coupled with our working knowledge of the BWSC plant, and designed, engineered and tested a completely new vertical solution within just seven weeks from that initial conversation with the customer. That solution was the Descender Duo as we know it today.”

Traditionally, the furnace required a cooling period of up to 36 hours before preparatory work could begin, followed by manual slag removal using rope-access personnel. With Descender Duo, work commenced just 24 hours after shutdown, reducing downtime by up to one day.

The deployment removed 25 tonnes of slag within hours, eliminated the need for at least six workers to enter the hazardous furnace interior and saved 26 hours in the shutdown programme.

“The effectiveness exceeded expectation,” said Martin Doran, Plant Manager at Lisahally Power Station.

“When the Descender Duo concept was first discussed, we had to spend some time with the team from Leonard looking at how it was going to be moved into the furnace. Every site is different and that presented its own challenges, but nothing that the team couldn’t overcome. Once it was installed we were hugely impressed by its efficiency.”

Expanding Industrial Robotics Applications

Descender Duo joins Leonard’s existing portfolio of robotic maintenance solutions, including the Axis horizontal-access arm, Nano confined-space access arm, Charger cement mill media recharging system and Calibre cement mill media grading system.

Headquartered in Northern Ireland, Leonard provides robotic refractory demolition, installation, inspection and industrial maintenance services across the cement, metals, energy, biomass, glass and civil engineering sectors.

Formerly known as G Leonard, the company has more than 35 years of industry experience and operates across Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

The latest innovation reinforces Leonard’s focus on replacing hazardous manual processes with robotic systems that improve workforce safety, enhance operational efficiency and minimise industrial downtime.

Concrete

Martin Engineering Appoints Ashwini Khunte as India General Manager

Published

6 days ago

October 30, 2026

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Martin Engineering names Ashwini Khunte India General Manager to strengthen operations and drive growth across key bulk material handling sectors.

Pune

Martin Engineering, a global provider of bulk material handling solutions, has appointed Ashwini Khunte as General Manager of its India business, strengthening its leadership as the company expands its presence across the country’s cement, mining, steel, power and infrastructure sectors.

Khunte brings more than a decade of experience with Martin Engineering, having joined its Indian operations in 2013 as a Design Engineer, shortly after the company established its presence in the country in 2012.

A mechanical engineer by qualification, she spent her initial five years developing bulk material handling solutions in collaboration with the company’s operations team. During this period, she gained extensive experience addressing operational challenges in the steel, cement and coal industries. She subsequently moved into project engineering, managing major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) projects from initial enquiry to commissioning. Her responsibilities later expanded to overseeing Martin Engineering’s conveyor product portfolio in India, involving customer engagement, technical presentations and site visits across heavy industries.

In 2024, Khunte was promoted to Head of Sales & Marketing for the company’s Europe, Middle East, Africa and India (EMEAI) region. The position broadened her international market exposure and strengthened her strategic and commercial leadership capabilities.

Commenting on her appointment, Ashwini Khunte, General Manager, Martin Engineering India, said: “India represents a tremendous opportunity for Martin Engineering. The country’s continued investment in cement, mining, steel, power and infrastructure is creating increasing demand for safer, cleaner and more productive bulk material handling, and that’s exactly what we do. My priority will be to build on the strong foundations already established in India, while continuing to develop our people, strengthen customer relationships and bring practical solutions to the challenges faced by our industry.”

Robert Whetstone, Area Vice President – EMEAI, Martin Engineering, highlighted Khunte’s technical expertise, market understanding and leadership experience.

“Ashwini brings an exceptional combination of technical understanding, customer knowledge and commercial leadership. She has grown as Martin Engineering has grown, and has consistently demonstrated outstanding capability to transform her expertise into practical solutions. Her knowledge of the Indian market, together with her international experience, makes her ideally suited to lead our India business through its next stage of growth for years to come.”

Since establishing its Indian business in 2012, Martin Engineering has expanded its local workforce, manufacturing capabilities and dealership network. The company supplies conveyor products, transfer point solutions, material flow aids, training and technical support to bulk material handling industries. Khunte’s appointment positions the company to further strengthen customer relationships and expand its solutions portfolio in India’s growing industrial and infrastructure markets.

Concrete

Fornnax Wins AIRIA’s Special Export Award for Rubber Machinery in 2025-26

Published

2 weeks ago

October 19, 2026

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Fornnax Technology Pvt. Ltd. has been honoured with the Special Export Award – Rubber Machinery for 2025–26 by the All-India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA), in recognition of its highest exports of tyre recycling plants to the European region.

With more than a decade of experience in India’s tyre recycling industry, Fornnax has contributed to the development of advanced recycling technologies and infrastructure. The company currently holds a 90% market share in India’s domestic tyre recycling sector, while exports account for 30% of its business, spanning markets such as Europe, Australia and the GCC.

The award marks another milestone for Fornnax, whose tyre recycling lines and advanced shredding technologies are supporting the growth of the circular economy in India and international markets.

Commenting on the recognition, Mr. Jignesh Kundaria, Founder and Director of Fornnax, said:

“This honour from AIRIA is a reflection of an incredible journey we have undertaken over the years. When we started Fornnax, there was no established recycling industry in India to follow. We chose to build for the future instead. Today, when you see India’s tyre recycling sector, it has already transformed into a dynamic, high-growth industry and we are extremely proud to have played our part in building it.”

Unlike standalone equipment suppliers, Fornnax focuses on developing complete, high-capacity recycling infrastructure. Its integrated systems combine multiple stages of shredding and size reduction to enable efficient, continuous operations. This system-level engineering approach helps recycling operators improve throughput, equipment reliability and operational consistency.

The recognition reinforces Fornnax’s commitment to developing engineering technologies that contribute to a more efficient and circular recycling ecosystem.

Looking ahead, the company aims to expand its international presence while continuing to develop advanced shredding and recycling solutions to address the growing volumes and evolving requirements of the global recycling industry.

For more information, visit: www.fornnax.com