Glasgow COP26 Meet offers New Delhi an opportunity to update its nationally determined contribution to meet targets
In a keynote address on 8 September at a symposium organized by a think tank, Union Minister for Energy, New and Renewable Energy RK Singh said, “Environment is something we trust and we have to leave a better environment for our children. and relatives – grandchildren.” However, a recent report “Assessment of Climate Change in the Indian Region” by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) shows that India has warmed by 0.7 °C during 1901-2018. The decade 2010-2019 was the warmest with an average temperature of 0.36°C above average. Heatwaves continued to increase, with no signs of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, despite less activity since the novel coronavirus pandemic. Prolonged exposure to heat is becoming harmful to public health, especially the poor who are unable to provide support to cope with the heat. The assessment done by MoES suggests that India may experience an increase of 4.4°C by the end of this century.
India has also suffered two of the 10 most costly climate disasters in the past two years. The super-cyclone “Cyclone Amphan” that hit India in 2020 was worth more than US$13 billion, even as the country was recovering from the “June-October monsoon floods” that cost USD 10 billion and killed nearly 1,600 people. had died. It was India’s heaviest monsoon rain in the last 25 years and the seventh costliest rain in the world. In early 2021, India faced two more cyclones: Cyclone Taukata hitting the west coast and Cyclone Yas from the east.
India’s Rising IDPs
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, India’s internally displaced population (IDP) is increasing due to harmful climate events. Residents of Uttarakhand started leaving their homes every year after the Kedarnath floods in 2013 due to heavy rainfall. Within 2050, precipitation is expected to increase by 6% and temperatures by 1.6 °C.
To make things worse, India lost about 235 square kilometers between 1990-2016 in coastal erosion caused by climate change-induced sea level rise, land erosion and natural disasters like tropical cyclones. About 3.6 million of the 170 million people living in coastal areas were displaced between 2008-2018. Recent figures are more alarming with 3.9 million displaced in 2020 alone, mostly due to Cyclone Amphan.
The Deccan Plateau of India has seen eight of the 17 severe droughts since 1876 in the 21st century (2000–2003; 2015–2018). In Maharashtra and Karnataka (the heart of the Deccan Plateau), families left home in 2019 due to a severe water crisis. Hatkarwadi, a village in Beed district of Maharashtra state, had at least 10-15 families remaining from the previous population of 2,000.
Good Policies, Weak Practices
India ranked in the top 10 for the second consecutive year in the 2020 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). The country received credit under all performance areas of the CCPI, except renewable energy where India performed moderately.
India vowed to work with COP 21 by signing the Paris Agreement to limit global warming and reduce emissions intensity of GDP by 33%-35% and increase green energy resources (non-fossil-oil). Introduced Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) with a target of Rs. based) 40% of installed electric capacity by 2030.
India co-founded, along with France at COP21 in 2015, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) – an alliance of around 120 countries with solar rich resources – which aims at USD1 trillion in investments to deploy solar energy at affordable prices by 2030. To collect. Despite the leading ISA, India is the lowest performer in renewable energy as per CCPI’s India performance. The question is, are these global alliances and world-leading policies being followed or are they just big promises that are rarely implemented?
Experts agree that India can achieve COP15 Copenhagen’s 2°C target in 2009. But it also sees that the country is not fully complying with the NDCs’ long-term temperature target of the Paris Agreement and still risks falling short. 2 °C target. According to India’s carbon emissions trajectory, the country is on track to achieve barely half of the pledged carbon sink by 2030. To achieve the NDC target of the Paris Agreement, India needs to produce 25 million-30 million hectares of forest area by 2030 – a third of the current Indian forests and trees. Going by the facts, it seems that India has over-promised on policies and goals as it becomes difficult to fulfill.
Why COP26 matters
Glasgow COP26 provides a great opportunity for India to reflect on Years after the Paris Agreement and update the NDC to successfully meet the set targets. India is expected to be the most populous country by 2027, overtaking China, making a significant contribution to the global climate through its consumption patterns. India is in a unique position to make a significant impact on the global climate impact in the new decade.
COP26 President Alok Sharma met Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupendra Yadav in August to persuade India to deliver more ambitious NDCs for 2030, to which the minister replied, “India believes that climate actions should be determined at the national level… the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement for developing countries should be at the core of decision-making…”
Being one of the Observer States of the Climate Sensitive Forum (CVF) as well as an influential member of COP26, India has the potential to improve its global position by leading a favorable climate target aspiration for the world to follow. . The country has an opportunity to not only protect itself from further climate disasters but also to become a leader in the path of climate change prevention.
Syed Munir Khasru is the President of the International Think Tank, The Institute for Policy, Advocacy and Governance (IPAG), New Delhi, with presence in Dhaka, Melbourne, Vienna and Dubai.
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