Climate Equity Monitor

Subject – Environment

Context – Ahead of COP26, Indian site highlights emissions gap

Concept –

A day ahead of the commencement of the 26th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) in Glasgow, Scotland, India has officially endorsed a website, made by Indian climate experts, that lists the historical carbon dioxide emissions of developed countries.
The database aims to highlight the disparity between the emissions of developed and developing countries with countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia and those in Western Europe shown as having a net carbon debt while developing countries such as India and China having net credit.
India is the third largest emitter of carbon emissions annually but the sixth largest when historical emissions are considered, and when accounting for the size of its population it is among the lowest per capita emitters.
The Climate Equity Monitor, as the site is called, is aimed at monitoring the performance of Annex-I Parties under the UNFCCC (developed countries) based on the “foundational principles” of the Climate Convention.
The performance and policies of the Non-Annex-I Parties (developing countries) will be provided for comparison.
The website was conceptualised and developed by the Climate Change Group at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Department at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, with other independent researchers.