The world's most populous country and third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases has been facing pressure to curb pollution while meeting rising energy demand.

The announcement came after the cabinet approved India's so-called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), a roadmap to achieve climate change goals under the Paris Agreement.

The country will "achieve 60 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2035", the statement from the federal government read.

It also pledged to reduce emissions intensity, a measurement of emissions generated relative to GDP, by 47 percent by 2035, compared with 2005 levels.

India had previously aimed to bring the share of non-fossil fuels to 50 percent of installed power capacity by 2030, but has already met that target.

It had also aimed to create a carbon sink of up to three billion tonnes by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. The updated pledges expand that plan to between 3.5 and four billion tonnes by 2035.

Carbon sinks offset emissions that cannot be fully eliminated, especially from hard-to-decarbonise sectors like industry, transport and agriculture.

Some analysts hailed the updated commitments, with climate activist Harjeet Singh saying: "India is capitalising on the extraordinary momentum that saw it smash its previous renewable energy goals years ahead of schedule."

- 'Very modest' -

But the new commitments do not include a projected year when emissions will peak, and the emissions intensity target is less ambitious than the 50-55 percent range some experts had suggested was possible.

The emissions intensity target "represents a very modest increase compared with its potential," said Aman Srivastava, climate policy fellow at Sustainable Futures Collaborative.

That could "further erode trust in multilateral negotiations", he warned.

The pledge to increase renewables capacity is "more significant and welcome" but will only have an impact if the installations are actually used to generate electricity, he told AFP.

Like all signatories to the Paris accord, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, India is required to submit updated NDCs to the United Nations through 2035.

It has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2070, but remains heavily reliant on coal, which accounts for roughly 75 percent of its electricity generation.

Last year, only 13 percent of the electricity generated in India came from solar panels or wind turbines, with storage capacity lagging far behind generation power.

The country's electricity needs are expected to more than double by 2047, according to the New Delhi-based non-profit Center for Science and Environment.

New Delhi has recently faced criticism for being slow to publish its NDCs, notably from France, which had threatened to block European funds earmarked for the country's decarbonisation.

The country emitted an estimated 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2024, according to UN data, trailing only China and the United States.

However, its per-capita emissions and historical contribution to global warming remain far lower than many developed nations.