High wellbeing with lower energy consumption: scenarios for India’s residential sector

Ensuring equitable access to energy services to enhance human wellbeing is gaining prominence within climate negotiations. Despite rising energy demands in the Global South, disparities persist in access to decent living standards (DLS). Achieving DLS universally requires additional energy, yet the efficacy of demand-side strategies in meeting climate goals remains underexplored. Here, we assess energy and carbon dioxide emission implications of providing DLS to all within climate change mitigation efforts, focusing on India’s residential sector and using a multi-model analysis. Our findings show that providing DLS while leveraging demand-side measures, supported by enabling policies and widely available technologies, can substantially reduce residential energy demand by up to 27% by 2050 compared to a reference scenario. We find that enhanced access to DLS combined with demand-side measures not only improves wellbeing but also provides flexibility on the supply side while remaining compatible with ambitious climate targets.