New Delhi, July 5: India’s action plan on climate change exposes a lack of ambition compared with China’s plan to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, an environmental group has said.

The key to reducing the emissions of Earth-warming greenhouse gases lies in expanding renewable energy like wind and solar power as well as reducing dependence on carbon-laden fossil fuels through energy efficiency targets, Greenpeace India officials said.

The plan released by the Centre on Monday has set ambitious targets to expand renewable energy, but it has proposed neither targets nor mandatory mechanisms to enforce energy efficiency, they said.

Increasing energy efficiency means getting more work out of a particular quantity of energy consumed — such as, for a car, increasing its mileage.

“The (Indian) plan doesn’t specify regulatory enforcement of energy efficiency standards on any industry, except automobiles,” said K. Srinivas, policy adviser, Greenpeace India. “We’re happy to see a shift in language — the government is now talking of growth based on renewable energy and more efficiency, but we don’t see any targets for energy efficiency.”

Greenpeace has said India’s plan to save 10,000MW by 2012 through energy efficiency is not ambitious. “It’s a weak target,” Srinivas said.

Replacing incandescent bulbs by compact fluorescent lamps alone would help India save 12,000MW.

A similar plan announced by China last year set a goal of reducing energy consumption by 20 per cent for every unit of growth. This translates into a reduction of 550 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over a five-year period.

“China has mandatory domestic targets and they’ve been broken down for each region and each industrial sector,” said Yang Ailun, climate and energy campaign manager with Greenpeace China.

In international climate-change talks, China and India are facing common pressures to reduce emissions. “With voluntary action, India could have a stronger say in negotiations,” said Vinuta Gopal, a Greenpeace climate campaigner in India.

India’s action plan has proposed local production of 1,000MW per year of solar photovoltaics to help turn sunlight into electricity, and an increase in the share of renewable energy in electricity grids to 15 per cent by 2020.

China also plans to tap 15 per cent of all its energy from renewable sources by 2020.