India needs over $22 tn for green transition to become Net Zero by 2070: NITI Aayog

India will require a cumulative investment of $22.7 trillion to achieve its goal of Net Zero by 2070, NITI Aayog said as it outlined over a dozen policy prescriptions to help India’s transition to clean energy while aligning with its aim to become a Viksit Bharat by 2047.

On an annualised basis, this cumulative requirement translates into average flows of approximately $500 billion per year, compared with actual annual investment of around $135 billion in 2024, it said, adding there is a need to front-load approximately $8 trillion by 2050, including $5 trillion in the power sector.

“India’s vision of becoming a developed economy by 2047 and achieving Net Zero emissions by 2070 requires a delicate balancing act,” the Aayog said in its report on ‘Scenarios Towards Viksit Bharat and Net Zero: An Overview’, released on Monday.


The Aayog calls for establishing an executive body under the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change as a Low Carbon Development Cell/Secretariat to enable coordination across line ministries and departments, provide continuous analytical support, resolve bottlenecks, and align centre–state action.

Further, there is a need to align five-year sectoral and state budgets to the nationally determined contributions (NDC) cycle along modernised regulation, and independent progress assessment that will help shift climate action to a standing delivery system, it said.

As per the study, while India could credibly mobilise around $16.2 trillion towards its Net Zero transition by 2070 through a structural expansion in the scale, depth and efficiency of available capital, a financing gap of $6.53 trillion remains.

“Given domestic constraints and the risk of crowding out and higher interest rates, this gap is expected to be met largely through external sources, raising the share of international sources to 42% of total capital needs by 2070, rising from 17% in 2022–23,” it said.

“International capital, particularly concessional finance and grants, will therefore be critical to supporting technologies essential for Net Zero that are not yet commercially viable,” it added.

As per the report, the top five things that India needs to focus on to achieve Net Zero by 2070 is promoting electrification alongside power sector transition to cleaner sources, work towards demand moderation while adopting efficiency and circularity, reorient urban and mobility systems towards public and shared transport, creating a pool of skilled workers to help in green transition and building a resilient domestic supply chain for clean technologies and critical materials.

The report, however, said the net zero transition will have limited impact on long-term GDP growth and that India’s GDP is projected to stay broadly resilient even in Net Zero scenarios, reaching $30 trillion by 2047 which is aligned to the Viksit Bharat goal.

“India’s Net Zero emissions are an opportunity for achieving Viksit Bharat. Building a modern, advanced economy while changing its energy and technological bases is an opportunity for India to leverage the disruption and leapfrog into the future as a leader,” it concluded.