Mains Practice Questions

Approach

• Start with writing about the UNFCCC and its COP meetings.
• Describe the major outcomes of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• Mention the commitments made by India in this conference.
• Conclude suitably.

Answer

The COP26 summit held at Glasgow brought parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC.

Major outcomes of the 26th CoP are as follows

• Methane Pledge: The European Union and the US have launched a landmark pledge to slash  emissions of greenhouse gas methane, a commitment that could prevent 0.2 degrees Celsius of global warming. The alliance's members will seek to lower global emissions of methane (the second-largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide) by 30% below 2020 levels by 2030. India did not sign it.
• Deforestation Pledge: More than 100 national leaders pledged to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of 2030. The agreement vastly expands a commitment made by 40 countries as part of the 2014 New York Declaration of Forests and promises more resources.
• Call for Climate Finance: India noted that climate finance cannot continue at the levels decided in 2009 (100 billion USD) and emphasized that it should be at least USD 1 trillion to meet the goals of addressing climate change. India underlined the unity and strength of Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) as fundamental in the UNFCCC negotiations.
• Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS): India launched it for developing the infrastructure of small island developing nations (SIDN). SIDN faces the biggest threat from climate change, India’s space agency ISRO will build a special data window to provide them timely information about cyclones, coral-reef monitoring, coastline monitoring etc.
• One Sun One World One Grid Group (OSOWOG): It is an initiative by India and the United Kingdom to tap solar energy and have it travel seamlessly across borders. It includes a group of governments called the Green Grids Initiative (GGI) - One Sun One World One Grid group.

India made the ‘Panchamrit’ commitments (five promises) at the CoP 26

• India will achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.
• India will bring its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030.
• India will bring its economy's carbon intensity down to 45% by 2030.
• India will fulfil 50% of its energy requirement through renewable energy by 2030.
• India will reduce 1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions from the total projected emissions by 2030.

COP26 of Glasgow is a promising start on emissions reduction, however, on the part of global largest emitters, much more is expected to be done. In India’s context, it needs to work out a detailed plan of action with reference to phasing-down coal-based power generation and encouraging electric vehicles.