Coal concern has prohibited India from signing global pledge on renewables and energy at COP28

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate change

Context:

Concern about mounting pressure to phase out coal any time soon has mainly prevented India from signing the global pledge on renewable energy and energy efficiency at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge:

Some 116 countries signed the Pledge, agreeing to triple the worldwide installed renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 gigawatts and double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements to more than four per cent by 2030.
According to the IEA (International Energy Agency) and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change), in order to meet the Paris Agreement goal, renewables deployment must be accompanied in this decade by a rapid increase of energy efficiency improvements and the phase down of unabated coal power, in particular ending the continued investment in unabated new coal-fired power plants, which is incompatible with efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.

Details:

Under Indian presidency, G20 has recently mentioned the need to triple renewable energy globally.
Both India and China, major emitters, have not signed the pledge.
India is planning to add coal-based power plants soon to meet its rise in power demand. The country has added an average five gigawatts of coal-based electricity generation capacity annually over the last five years, apart from aggressively pushing up renewable energy.

Global Decarbonization Accelerator (GDA):

It is a new mechanism unveiled by COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber to decarbonise and achieve the target under the pledge.
GDA is a set of initiatives designed to speed up the energy transition and sharply reduce global emissions.
It is focused on three key pillars: (i) rapidly scaling the energy system of tomorrow; (ii) decarbonising the energy system of today; and (iii) targeting methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases.
Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC):
- Under the GDA, 50 companies representing over 40 per cent of global oil production have signed on to the (OGDC). They have thus committed to zero methane emissions and ending routine flaring by 2030 and to total net-zero operations by 2050 at the latest.
- Signatories to the Charter agree to target a number of key actions, including investing in the energy system of the future including renewables, low-carbon fuels and negative emissions technologies; increasing transparency, including enhancing measurement, monitoring, reporting and independent verification of GHG emissions and their performance and progress in reducing emissions.
The GDA also proposes to have a formal mechanism to track mode of decarbonisation across key heavy-emitting sectors.