Form of words:
IEarlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood on a global stage announcement of Climate commitments shocked the world. Months after resisting pressure from high-income countries to “do more” to save the earth, India changed its mind and offered the world more Much more than what was expected.
The global forum in question is the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) which is currently taking place in Glasgow. Countries have come together to figure out how to slow global warming, and even though these talks take place annually, the conference has taken on a new impetus since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). warning That humanity may have already missed the bus, sending Earth on a path of irreversible man-made destruction, unless adequate action is now taken.
Headlines coming out of COP26 ranged from leaders at a cursory glance to reports calling on high-income countries to make hollow promises, from urgent signings to cut coal and deforestation. With renewed urgency to stop climate change, world leaders are at least talking up. Only time will tell whether they can walk or not. That’s why COP26 is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
Read also: India cannot change into another China. It must protect our ‘Mother Nature’ from danger
India in COP
On the podium, Modi made five new promises that experts made agree with All are ambitious, but in practice can go some way or the other.
In its new pledges, India said It will, by 2030, increase its installed renewable capacity to 500 gigawatts, install 50 percent of its electricity capacity through non-fossil fuel resources, reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion tons, and reduce the economy’s carbon emissions intensity by 45 percent. will reduce to Percent
It also said it would reach net-zero emissions by 2070 – about as much carbon dioxide as it produces from the atmosphere. For the world’s third largest emitter (we emitted 2.88 billion tons of carbon dioxide last year) that’s a lot.
In practical terms, this means eliminating coal, which fuels 70 percent of our electricity, switching to electric vehicles, decarbonizing polluting industries like cement and steel, creating forests to absorb carbon dioxide, and more. Installing solar power plants, all in the next few decades.
Our neighbor, China, today made no new commitments despite being the world’s biggest carbon emitter – accounting for 11 percent of all emissions. Critics have said the United States today should have promised net-zero emissions before 2050 to make up for its historic emissions due to global warming.
In this context, India, a country that ranks only 131 on the Human Development Index, still has a long way to go in ending widespread poverty. is appreciated.
However, India’s stand was not always so clear. Just a few months ago, on more than one occasion, it was politely rejected To pledge net-zero emissions, arguing that countries must deliver on promises made in the past. report is got to know That India is one of the few countries on track to meet its Paris Agreement targets – the targets set during the 21st COP.
When the IPCC warned that countries should cut emissions and reach net-zero by 2050, India said its stance was “validAnd that it was meant to cut deep on developed countries.
Joe Biden’s World Leader SummitThe visits of US climate envoy John Kerry and COP president Alok Sharma – all in pursuit of India’s elusive net-zero pledge – were in vain.
Read also: What is the ‘Global Methane Pledge’ signed by 103 countries in COP26?
History of Climate Change Dialogue
COP has been running since 1995But there are high expectations from this meeting in particular.
COP26 is the first since the Paris Agreement to review and revise climate change targets, which aim to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. This is also the first cop who decide The rules governing the Paris Agreement – for example, rules relating to climate finance.
Climate finance is a thorny topic. Low and middle income countries outnumber high income countries Failure To meet the $100 billion promised in 2009. The money is meant to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change, without which they would not only face catastrophe but also risk not meeting their goals.
A report of the United Nations Standing Committee on Finance states that developing countries really need trillions of dollars To achieve only a fraction of its climate change goals set in 2015. IPCC report warns that if countries do not do more to limit climate change, temperatures will rise 2.7 degrees by the end of the century.
Developed countries have sternly admitted that they Will not done Be able to give $100 billion before 2023. Climate activists have dubbed their efforts to obtain private sector funding “green washing– False claim to protect the environment while companies continue to damage it.
India’s key commitments came with another message that should not be missed.
“India expects developed countries to make available $1 trillion climate finance at the earliest. Today, as we track progress on climate mitigation, so should we track climate finance,” Modi said, adding that justice will indeed be served if we put pressure on countries that meet their climate finance commitments. do not. “
What he meant was that mitigating climate change was a two-way street. And there is no scope for the developed countries to turn away from their responsibilities.
Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Srinjoy Dey)
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