2025 World Water Development Report

On March 21, 2025, the UN released the annual World Water Development Report. In alignment with the designation of 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation and the 2022 resolution of the UN General Assembly on sustainable mountain development, this report draws worldwide attention to the importance of mountain waters, including alpine glaciers, in the sustainable development of mountain regions and the downstream societies that depend upon them, in the context of the rapidly changing mountain cryosphere.

For billions of people, mountain meltwater is essential for drinking water and sanitation, food and energy security, and the integrity of the environment. But today, as the world warms, glaciers are melting faster than ever, making the water cycle more unpredictable and extreme. And because of glacial retreat, floods, droughts, landslides and sea-level rise are intensifying, with devastating consequences for people and nature.

This report offers solutions to help us simultaneously mitigate and adapt to rapid changes in our frozen water resources. It provides a clear overview of the current state of play and recommends what needs to change. The urgent need to drastically reduce carbon emissions is emphatically repeated. By detailing the connections between mountain fresh water, essential services and the natural world, this publication highlights the critical importance of conserving the cryosphere to the achievement of the SDGs.  

Status of the world’s water resources

• According to the most recent global estimates (from 2021), the agriculture sector dominates freshwater withdrawals (72%), followed by industry (15%) and domestic (or municipal) use (13%). Sector-specific freshwater withdrawals vary considerably as a function of a country’s level of economic development. Higher-income countries use more water for industry, whereas lower-income countries use 90% (or more) of their water for agricultural irrigation.
• Over the period 2000–2021, global freshwater withdrawals increased by 14%, corresponding to an average growth rate of 0.7% per year. Most of this increase occurred in cities, countries and regions undergoing rapid economic development.
• Population growth does not appear to play a highly significant role in increasing demand for water. In fact, countries where per capita water use is the lowest, including several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, are often those with the fastest growing populations.
• Twenty-five countries (including India), which account for one-quarter of the world’s population, face ‘extremely high’ water stress every year.
• Approximately 4 billion people, or half the world’s population, experience severe water scarcity for at least part of the year.
• Climate change is increasing seasonal variability in, and uncertainty about, water availability in most regions. Pollution, land and ecosystem degradation, and natural hazards can further compromise the availability of water resources.

Progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 seeks to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Progress towards all SDG 6 targets is off track – some severely. For example, an estimated 2.2 billion people (27% of the global population) were without access to safely managed drinking water in 2022, with four out of five people living in rural areas lacking even basic drinking water services.

Mountain regions

• As the ‘water towers’ of the world, mountains are an essential source of fresh water.
• They are vital for meeting basic human needs such as water supply and sanitation.
• These waters are also vital in ensuring food and energy security to billions of people living in and around mountain regions and in areas downstream.
• The main economic activities in mountain regions are agriculture, pastoralism, forestry, tourism, mining, cross-border trade and energy production. Mountain regions provide high-value products such as medicinal plants, timber and other forest products, unique mountain livestock and speciality agriculture products.
• They are global hotspots of agrobiodiversity, with a large fraction of the world’s gene pools for agriculture and medicinal plants preserved in mountains.
• Mountains feature a diverse range of ecological zones, each resulting from a specific combination of factors such as elevation, geomorphology, isolation and microclimatic conditions (e.g. insolation). Consequently, they often have higher endemic biodiversity than lowlands, including important genetic varieties of agricultural crops and animals.
• They also have an equally diverse range of human cultures.

Glaciers and the mountain cryosphere

• The mountain cryosphere is one of the most-sensitive components of the Earth system to global climate change. Mountains generally supply more surface runoff per unit area than lowlands, due to higher precipitation and lower evaporation.
• Alpine glaciers also store and release water, albeit over much longer time-frames.
• In many high mountain regions, the formation of seasonal snow cover provides most of the freshwater storage.
• Most of the world’s glaciers, including those in mountains, are melting at an
  increasing rate. However, snow-melt accounts for a greater volume of streamflow in most river basins with a cryosphere component, and is often substantially higher than glacier melt.
• Global warming is accelerating glacier melt, decreasing snow cover, increasing permafrost thaw, and prompting more extreme rainfall events and natural hazards.
• Water flows from mountains will become more erratic, uncertain and variable.
• Changes in the timing and volume of peak and low flow periods, increased erosion and sediment loads will affect water resources downstream, in terms of quantity, timing and quality.
• Dust, combustion-related soot deposits including black carbon, and microbial and algal growth on snow and glacier surfaces are becoming more common due to increased frequency and/or intensity of dust storms, air pollution and wildfires. They can accelerate melt rates by decreasing surface albedo until the next snowfall.
• The consequences of climate change, including higher temperatures, glacial recession, permafrost thaw and changing precipitation patterns, can affect flood and landslide risks. The processes associated with these risks, such as debris flows and floods, avalanches, rock- and icefalls, landslide dam outburst floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), can pose significant threats to communities, wildlife and infrastructure.

Food and agriculture
Agriculture and pastoralism are essential sources of livelihoods for people in rural mountain areas. One in two rural mountain dwellers in developing countries are vulnerable to food insecurity. Remoteness and inaccessibility, as well as land degradation (which leads to poor quality soils) and large variations in seasonal water supply, combine to create significant challenges for mountain agriculture.

Mountain communities preserve many of the rarest crop varieties and medicinal plants. They have developed valuable traditional knowledge and techniques in crop cultivation, livestock production and water harvesting that help to sustain entire ecosystems. 

Indigenous Peoples in mountains have unique and valuable local knowledge, traditions and cultural practices that contribute to sustainable food systems, land management and biodiversity preservation. Terrace farming can be adapted to local slope conditions. Its numerous benefits include reducing surface water runoff, promoting water conservation, reducing soil erosion, stabilizing slopes, enhancing habitat and biodiversity production, and sustaining cultural heritage.

Responses to climate-driven impacts in mountains vary significantly in terms of goals and priorities, speed of implementation, governance and modes of decision-making, and the extent of financial and other resources to implement them.

Adaptation responses commonly include changing farming practices, infrastructure development including for water storage, application of Indigenous knowledge, community-based capacity-building and ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA).

Human settlements and disaster risk reduction
Roughly 1.1 billion people live in mountain regions, two-thirds of whom live in towns and cities. The remoteness of mountain communities, difficult terrain and heightened exposure to natural hazards often lead to higher costs for transport, infrastructure, goods and services. These also pose particular challenges for the financing, development and maintenance of water supply and sanitation systems, drainage networks and other essential water infrastructure.

Rapid and unplanned urbanization in mountain regions is also placing pressure on fragile mountain ecosystems, affecting water availability, quality and security.

Decentralized water and sanitation systems can be particularly effective in mountain regions, reducing the risk of infrastructure damage in rugged terrain subject to frequent landslides. 

Natural hazards such as landslides, earthquakes, floods, GLOFs and avalanches can damage the water supply and sanitation infrastructure, and disrupt access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. Such hazards increase the vulnerability of already vulnerable and often marginalized mountain communities, and destabilize some of their wealth-generating sectors, including agriculture, tourism and biodiversity.

Examples of adaptation actions in mountain regions include: feasibility studies for building emergency storage and bypasses and controlled releases from glacial lakes; river basin management and planning for basin optimization; monitoring temporal changes in glaciers; and establishing GLOF risk reduction and early warning systems in glaciated river basins.

Industry and energy
Water-dependent industries have developed in mountain areas where water and other resources are found in relative abundance. In addition to industrial and energy production, water is also required to process minerals, produce timber and develop tourism in mountain areas.

Hydropower generation is one of the main industries in mountain areas. The presence of a slope and the shape of mountain valleys make it possible to generate hydropower without building large dams and reservoirs. However, the construction and presence of dams and reservoirs, transmission lines and substations can have a significant negative impact on fragile mountain ecosystems.

Beyond water availability, a significant challenge for industry and energy is the elevation at which it is possible to operate. As such conditions can generate huge investment and running costs, industrial activities are typically limited to those with high returns on investment.

Industrial and energy development can affect water quality. Remote
mountain areas can be difficult to regulate, resulting in uncontrolled water
withdrawals and discharges, including pollutants.

Responses are available and are being developed to make industry and
energy production in mountain areas more sustainable. The circular
economy promotes water-use reduction, recycling of used water and
reuse of water resources. Environmentally sound technologies encompass
practices such as the use of less-polluting technologies, better resource
management and efficient waste recycling. The greening of grey
infrastructure or its replacement with green infrastructure can be particularly effective in mountain areas.

Environment
Mountain and highland ecosystems provide essential ecosystem services to people living in mountains, and to billions in connected lowland areas. Water regulation (including water storage and flood regulation) is one of the most important services.

Other key ecosystem services include reducing the risk of erosion and
landslides, cooling local temperatures, carbon sequestration, providing food and fibres, and maintaining pools of genetic resources for locally adapted crops and livestock.

Forests cover an estimated 40% of mountain areas, performing a protective function against natural hazards by stabilizing steep slopes, regulating flows to groundwater, reducing surface runoff and soil erosion, and mitigating the potential for landslides and floods. Unsustainable tree cultivation can lead to increased soil erosion and reduced soil water infiltration.

Mountain soils develop under harsh climatic conditions. They differ
significantly from lowland soils, as they are shallower and more vulnerable to erosion. Such soils are easily and often degraded by various human activities, especially removal of vegetation that exposes the bare soil. The recovery of degraded soils and thus ecosystems at high elevations is slow.

At the ecosystem level, most of the options for addressing the impacts
of changes in the cryosphere and high mountains involve conserving or
restoring ecosystem functionality to maintain or enhance ecosystem
services at local to regional scales through nature-based solutions (NbS)
or EbA. These approaches are now commonly seen as an adaptation
component in the nationally determined contributions of many mountain
countries around the world.

2024 World Air Quality Report.

In March 2025, IQAir, the technology partner of the UN, released the 2024 World Air Quality Report.

About this report
The 2024 World Air Quality Report evaluates the global state of air quality for the year 2024. This comprehensive report presents PM2.5 air quality data collected from 8,954 cities across 138 countries, regions, and territories. The data used herein is sourced from over 40,000 regulatory air quality monitoring stations and low-cost sensors, operated by a diverse range of entities, including government agencies, research institutions, non-profit organizations, schools, universities, private sector companies, and dedicated citizen scientists worldwide.

The PM2.5 data is measured in micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m³) and the data is visualized as a function of the World Health Organization (WHO) annual PM2.5 air quality guideline. The air quality metrics included in this 2024 report derive from IQAir’s real-time online monitoring platform, which systematically validates, calibrates, and harmonizes data from air quality monitoring stations globally.

For further historic air quality information categorized by city, country, and region, the IQAir website offers an interactive map displaying annual city concentrations alongside global rankings of air quality for the 8,954 cities featured in this report. IQAir is committed to engaging, informing, and inspiring a collaborative effort among governments, educators, researchers, non-profit organizations, businesses, and citizens to elevate air quality awareness. Our goal is to facilitate informed dialogue and promote actions that enhance air quality and safeguard the health of communities and cities around the world.

Executive Summary
Air pollution remains the greatest environmental threat to human health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 99% of the global population lives in areas that do not meet recommended air quality guideline levels.1 Air pollution is the second leading global risk factor for death, and the second leading risk factor for deaths among children under five, following malnutrition, due to its significant impact on respiratory and developmental health.2 In 2021 alone, 8.1 million total deaths were attributable to air pollution, with 58% of those deaths caused by ambient PM2.5 air pollution.3

The United Nations has declared access to healthy air is a universal human right.4 Exposure to PM2.5 contributes to and exacerbates various health conditions, including asthma, cancer, stroke, and lung diseases.5 In addition, exposure to elevated levels of fine particles during pregnancy and early childhood are associated with congenital heart defects, eczema and allergic disease, cognitive impairments and delays, neurodevelopmental disorders, and mental health disorders.6

The data used to create this report was compiled from over 40,000 air quality monitoring stations and low-cost sensors worldwide, operated by research institutions, government agencies, schools, universities, non-profit organizations, private companies, and citizen scientists.

The 2023 World Air Quality Report included data from 7,812 locations in 134 countries, regions, and territories. In 2024, those numbers have grown to 8,954 cities in 138 countries, regions, and territories. Coverage has expanded in Africa to include Chad, the most polluted country in 2024, along with Djibouti and Mozambique. The countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Burkina Faso (ranked 5th most polluted country in 2023) are notably absent in 2024 due to a lack of data availability.

Only 12 countries, regions, and territories recorded PM2.5 concentrations below the WHO annual PM2.5 guideline of 5.0 μg/m³, most of which were in the Latin America and Caribbean or Oceania region; however in 2024, 17% of cities included in the report met the WHO annual PM2.5 guideline level, up from 9% in 2023. While this marks some progress, much more work has yet to be done to protect human health, especially that of children. It is our shared responsibility to safeguard the health and well-being of the world’s children, who will one day become the leaders of tomorrow. By equipping them with the knowledge and resources they need, we empower them to tackle the global challenges of the future.

Global Weirding and Climate Whiplash

 Global weirding, also called climate weirding, is a term coined by Rocky Mountain Institute co-founder Hunter Lovins. It refers to how warming temperatures can cause all kinds of "weird" phenomena that can at times be contradictory - from hotter heat spells and droughts in some places, to colder cold spells and more violent storms, more intense flooding, forest fires and species loss in other places.

Further, as a part of global weirding, many places are experiencing climate whiplash, or extreme opposite weather conditions in the same region. Cities across the globe have experienced droughts that dry up water sources followed closely by floods that overwhelm infrastructure, destroying sanitation systems and contaminating drinking water. Places accustomed to heavy rainfall are now facing droughts, while historically arid regions now grapple with unexpected floods.

Global warming, which addresses changes in average global temperature, does not begin to convey the range of severe weather-related events and changes in weather patterns that can occur because of climate change. Depending on the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions, average global temperatures could rise between 2°F and 11°F by the end of the century. But in one city temperatures can fluctuate more than that in a single day. That is global weirding.

About seven percent of the intensification of heavy rainfall globally is a consequence of climate change. While geographical variability of heat waves is uncertain, the rising trends in the projected intensity, frequency and duration of heat waves are unmistakable.

On the other hand, cold snaps may persist well into the end of this century. Thus, while the overall climate trend is one of warming, and heat waves are projected to intensify, extreme cold events on the average may continue to be as severe and long-lasting as they are currently.

The other aspect of the global weirding phenomenon is its impact on infrastructure, resources, species diversity and the economy. The impact of a warmer world and exacerbated extremes can be severe on both water and food security, especially in the more vulnerable parts of the world. According to the US Global Change Research Program, the consequences of climate change for the US will include stressed water resources, challenges to crop and livestock production, storm surges in coastal areas, and threats to human health.

(Sources: Northeastern University and The Week magazine)

2025 Water Aid Report on Water and Climate

In March 2025, the UK charity Water Aid released the report “Water and Climate: Rising Risks for Urban Populations”. The key findings of the report were:

• 15% of the cities examined in this report show an intensification trend, which we have termed ‘climate whiplash’, where both extreme dry and wet episodes are substantially increasing. These whiplashing extremes in quick succession can be particularly hard for communities to prepare for and recover from. These cities are found across the world, from Asia to the Middle East and Africa and the USA.
• South and Southeast Asia is a regional hotspot with a strong wetting trend. This region is experiencing an increase in wet and extreme wet climate, which increases the likelihood of extreme flooding. Many of the world’s largest cities are located in this area.
• Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa are experiencing a drying trend and are likely to face more frequent and long-lasting droughts.
• Over 20% of the cities are experiencing a reversal in their climate extremes. Approximately 13% are flipping toward a more extreme wet climate, while about 7% are flipping toward a more extreme dry climate.
• The convergence of underlying social and infrastructure vulnerabilities with these climatic patterns results in hotspots of risk in two key regions:
• South and Southeast Asia, which is experiencing increases in wet extremes.
• North and East Africa, which is experiencing increases in both wet and dry extremes.

 Water Aid has called for:

• Greater investment to tackle the water crisis: Development partners, multilateral banks and the private sector should work together to unlock investment in climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene systems that benefits the most vulnerable.
• Global leadership to accelerate action on water: Governments and development partners must work through the existing multilateral platforms to deliver ambitious action on climate and water, including through the UNFCCC, the G7 Water Coalition and the G20 Call to Action on Strengthening Drinking-water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Services.
• National government leadership to urgently deliver water plans: Governments in affected countries to mainstream and implement water,sanitation and hygiene measures into their national and city-level climateadaptation plans with a focus on vulnerable groups, especially women and girls.
• Prioritise the most vulnerable communities: All decision-makers to recognise overlapping vulnerabilities and prioritise the leadership and needs of women, girls and marginalised groups in climate-resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene plans.

Central Groundwater Board releases the 2024 Annual Groundwater Quality report

The Central Groundwater Board released the 2024 Annual groundwater Quality report in December 2024. This report presents the findings from the nationwide groundwater quality monitoring exercise based on a standardized methodology, following the newly established Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). Implemented across India in 2023, this uniform approach aims to establish a comprehensive baseline for groundwater quality, enabling targeted interventions to address emerging concerns.
 
Monitoring and Baseline Establishment: A total of 15,259 groundwater monitoring locations were selected nationwide to assess groundwater quality. These sites form the foundation for future evaluations, offering a clear baseline for ongoing monitoring efforts. To examine trends, 25% of the wells, identified as vulnerable to contamination based on BIS 10500 standards, were chosen for detailed analysis. Groundwater quality was sampled at 4,982 trend stations during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods to assess the impact of seasonal recharge on groundwater quality.
The objective of this report was to look into a wide spectrum of inorganic water quality parameters in groundwater used for drinking and agriculture purpose. These parameters consist of physico‐chemical parameters and trace elements.
 

Findings

Significant concerns have emerged from the analysis, particularly the high concentrations of nitrate, fluoride, arsenic, and iron in groundwater. Almost 20% of the samples exceeded the permissible limit for nitrate, while 9.04% of samples had fluoride levels above the limit. Arsenic contamination was found in 3.55% of samples.

Regional Variability and Seasonal Trends: Groundwater quality varies considerably across India. In certain states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir, 100% of the water samples met the BIS standards. In contrast, states like Rajasthan, Haryana, and Andhra Pradesh faced widespread contamination. Interestingly, the monsoon season showed some improvement in water quality, particularly in areas affected by high electrical conductivity (EC) and Fluoride. Post-monsoon, a modest reduction in EC levels and Fluoride was observed in some regions, indicating that monsoon recharge can temporarily improve water quality by diluting salts. However, certain districts such as Barmer and Jodhpur (Rajasthan) showed a rising trend in EC levels, signalling a deeper issue of groundwater salinization.

Hydrochemical Facies and Salinization: In terms of cation chemistry, calcium dominates the ion content, followed by sodium and potassium. For anions, bicarbonate is the most prevalent, followed by chloride and sulfate. This cation-anion distribution further highlights the role of bicarbonate in contributing to high alkalinity levels, which can exacerbate sodicity when coupled with high sodium concentrations. States like Rajasthan and Gujarat face high chloride concentrations due to the natural hydrochemical processes at play and Na-Cl type formations are prevalent. Over long periods, the aquifers have undergone repeated cycles of wetting and drying. During these cycles, highly soluble Na-Cl salts become concentrated in the aquifers. When groundwater levels drop, these salts become encrusted in the alluvium bed. Upon precipitation or recharge during the monsoon, these encrusted salts re-dissolve into the groundwater, enriching the chloride concentration and contributing to the increasing salinity levels.

Nitrate Contamination: States like Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra have some of the highest incidences of nitrate contamination, with over 40% of water samples exceeding the permissible limit. This is primarily linked to agricultural runoff and overuse of fertilizers.

Fluoride Contamination: Fluoride concentrations exceeding the permissible limit are a major concern in Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Although the monsoon season led to some improvement in fluoride levels in these states, the overall contamination levels remain alarmingly high.

Arsenic contamination: Elevated arsenic levels (>10 ppb) were found in several states, particularly in the floodplains of the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers. This includes regions of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Manipur, as well as areas in the Punjab, and Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh.

Uranium Contamination: A notable concern in the groundwater quality report is the elevated levels of uranium in several regions. 42% of samples with uranium concentrations exceeding 100 ppb came from Rajasthan, and 30% from Punjab, indicating regional hotspots of uranium contamination. Moreover, groundwater samples with uranium concentrations greater than 30 ppb were clustered in areas identified as over-exploited, critical, and semi-critical groundwater stress zones, such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. This overlap points to the exacerbating effect of over-exploitation and deepening water levels on uranium contamination in these regions.
 

India State of Forest Report 2023 Released

On December 21, 2024, the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav, released the ‘India State of Forest Report 2023 (ISFR 2023). The ISFR is brought out by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) on a biennial basis since 1987. FSI carries out in-depth assessment of the forest and tree resources of the country based on interpretation of Remote Sensing satellite data and field based National Forest Inventory (NFI), and the results are published in the ISFR. The India State of Forest Report 2023 is 18^th such report in the series.

 

The report contains information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, instances of forest fire, Agroforestry, etc. To present a detailed picture of the forest health at country level, special thematic information on forest cover and important characteristics of forests have been reported in the ISFR. As per the present assessment, the total Forest and Tree cover is 8,27,357 sq km, which is 25.17 percent of the geographical area of the country. The Forest Cover has an area of about 7,15,343 sq km (21.76%) whereas the Tree Cover has an area of 1,12,014 sq km (3.41%).

 

MAJOR FINDINGS

• The Forest and Tree cover of the country is 8,27,357 sq km which is 25.17% of the geographical area of the country, consisting of 7,15,343 sq km (21.76%) as forest cover and 1,12,014 sq km (3.41%) as tree cover.
• As compared to the previous assessment of 2021, there is an increase of 1445 sq km in the forest and tree cover of the country which includes 156 sq km increase in the forest cover and 1289 sq km increase in tree cover.
• Top four states showing maximum increase in forest and tree cover are Chhattisgarh (684 sq km) followed by Uttar Pradesh (559 sq km), Odisha (559 sq km) and Rajasthan (394 sq km).
• Top three states showing maximum increase in forest cover are Mizoram (242 sq km) followed by Gujarat (180 sq km) and Odisha (152 sq km).
• Area wise top three states having largest forest and tree cover are Madhya Pradesh (85,724 sq km) followed by Arunachal Pradesh (67,083 sq km) and Maharashtra (65,383 sq km).
• The top three states having largest forest cover are Madhya Pradesh (77,073 sq km), Arunachal Pradesh (65,882 sq km) and Chhattisgarh (55,812 sq km).
• In terms of percentage of forest cover with respect to total geographical area, Lakshadweep (91.33%) has the highest forest cover followed by Mizoram (85.34%) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (81.62%).
• The present assessment also reveals that 19 states/UTs have above 33%  of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these, eight states/UTs, namely Mizoram, Lakshadweep, A&N Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Manipur have forest cover above 75%.
• The total mangrove cover is 4,992 sq km in the country.
• The total growing stock of India’s forest and trees outside forests is estimated as 6430 million cu m, of which 4479 million cu m is inside the forests and 1951 million cum outside the forest area. There is an increase of 262 million cu m of total growing stock as compared to the previous assessment which includes an increase of 91 million cu m inside the forest and 171 million cu m outside the forest area.
• In the present assessment total carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated to be 7,285.5 million tonnes. There is an increase of 81.5 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as compared to the last assessment.
• Regarding status on achievement of target under NDC related to carbon sequestration, the current assessment shows that India’s carbon stock has reached 30.43 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent; which indicates that as compared to the base year of 2005, India has already reached 2.29 billion tonnes of additional carbon sink as against the target of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tonnes by 2030.