Scenarios Towards Viksit Bharat and Net Zero- Sectoral Insights: Buildings
The NITI Aayog Study Reports on Scenarios Towards Viksit Bharat and Net Zero present a comprehensive roadmap for India’s long-term development and decarbonisation across key sectors.
As part of this effort, AEEE is the Lead Knowledge Partner and Author of the “Sectoral Insights: Buildings” report, which examines the role of buildings in shaping a low-carbon, energy-efficient future.
Why this is critical:
- 86% of India’s 2070 building stock is yet to be built – a once-in-a-generation opportunity to avoid carbon lock-in through climate-responsive and energy-efficient design.
- Cooling is the defining challenge – residential AC penetration is projected to rise from 8% in 2022 to 80% by 2070, making cooling the fastest-growing electricity load and a critical peak-demand challenge.
- Embodied carbon accounts for nearly 50% of sectoral emissions, underscoring the urgency of low-carbon materials, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), and alignment with industrial decarbonisation.
- Policy must catalyse markets and skills must enable delivery – a scaled transformation will require expanded building codes, improved compliance, robust building energy data governance, green finance integration, strengthened appliance standards, and large-scale workforce skilling.
Decarbonising buildings is not only about reducing emissions. It is central to building a resilient, competitive and future-ready economy that delivers comfort, productivity and sustainable growth at scale.
