The Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative of India that aims to encourage adoption of sustainable lifestyles, including behavioural changes and sustainable consumer choices, is likely to reduce annual global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by more than two billion tonnes in 2030, said the latest report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
In the report “LiFE Lessons from India”, the IEA said that LiFE measures would save consumers globally around 440 billion dollar in 2030, equivalent to around 5% of all spending on fuels across the global economy that year.
It said that LiFE measures would help lower inequalities in energy consumption and emissions between countries. The reductions in per capita CO2 emissions in advanced economies by 2030 (relative to a ‘business-as-usual’ trajectory) are three- to four-times greater than in emerging market and developing economies, the agency said.
GROWTH
The report stated India, which is the the third largest national market globally for renewable, recently saw the growth of consumer-centric solutions like distributed solar PV take off, with rooftop solar growing 30-fold in less than a decade. “Supportive policies and awareness campaigns in India have also driven electric passenger vehicles to a market share of almost 5% in 2022 – with sales tripling from 2021,” the report mentioned.
Noting that India has integrated several policies in its energy transition strategy that are aligned with LiFE, it said that the country’s economy was already 10% more energy efficient than both the global and G20 average. India took less time to go from half to full electricity access than other major economies, the IEA said.
The Agency also noted that although the measures envisaged in LiFE are carried out by individuals, governments also have clear role to simultaneously provide a supportive policy framework. “We estimate that around 60% of the emissions saving by LiFE measures could be directly influenced or mandated by governments. How individuals behave and choose to consume is shaped by the norms, policies, incentives and infrastructure around them,” the IEA report said.
India’s first G20 Presidency could strengthen the LiFE initiative by anchoring it in the G20’s
current framing of energy transitions and initiating processes to gather experience and best
practices of policies and programmes that G20 members are already conducting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched LiFE at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. It aims to encourage the adoption of sustainable lifestyles in India and internationally to tackle the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change.
