IEA Report: LiFE lessons from India

In February 2023, the International Energy Agency released a Report entitled "LiFE lessons from India: The benefits of advancing the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative through the G20."

In November 2021 at the Climate Change Conference COP26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the Lifestyles for Environment (LiFE) initiative, which aims to promote more environmentally responsible consumption and behaviour worldwide. In today’s context of the global energy crisis and the continued challenge of climate change, LiFE is an important opportunity to accelerate clean energy transitions.

This Report looks at how India has integrated measures aligned with LiFE into its energy transition strategy, outlines the role of behavioural change and consumer choices in clean energy transitions, and provides a quantification of the emissions reduction potential of LiFE at the world level. It concludes with some reflections of the implications of LiFE for the G20.

The key findings of the Report were:

• The Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative aims to encourage the adoption of sustainable lifestyles in India and internationally to tackle the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change.
• India has integrated several policies in its energy transition strategy that are aligned with LiFE.
• India’s economy is 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.
• Already the third largest national market globally for renewables, India has recently seen 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.
• India’s example shows the importance of behavioural change and consumption choices in driving energy transitions. The IEA has analysed the impact of measures like those proposed by the LiFE initiative, such as buying an EV or taking public transport, as part of comprehensive energy transition strategies.
• According to the IEA’s modelling, the adoption worldwide of the kinds of actions and measures targeted by LiFE – including behavioural changes and sustainable consumer choices – would reduce annual global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by more than 2 billion tonnes (Gt) in 2030. This is about one-fifth of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 to put the world on a pathway to net zero emissions.
• IEA estimates 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. Thus, although the measures envisaged in LiFE are carried out by individuals, there is a clear role for governments to simultaneously provide a supportive policy framework.
• LiFE measures would also save consumers globally around USD 440 billion in 2030, according to the IEA’s modelling, equivalent to around 5% of all spending on fuels across the global economy that year.
• LiFE measures also 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.
• 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.