COP27: Non-state actors can’t destroy the environment, yet claim to be net zero, says report
- November 9, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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COP27: Non-state actors can’t destroy the environment, yet claim to be net zero, says report
Subject: Environment
Context-
- Non-state actors investing in new fossil fuel supply or engaging in deforestation and other environmentally destructive activities cannot claim to be net zero, according to a new report launched November 8, 2022, at Sharm El-Sheikh.
About the report-
- The document titled Integrity Matters: Net Zero Commitments By Businesses, Financial Institutions, Cities and Regions.
- The document, launched by a High-level Expert Group at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, lists 10 recommendations for non-state actors.
- These non-state actors include businesses, financial institutions, cities and regions.
- The recommendations can help bring integrity, transparency and accountability to such actors’ net zero ambitions.
- UNSC established the High-level Expert Group at COP26 in Glasgow to address credibility issues with net zero pledges and commitments from these entities.
- The report called for a task force on net zero regulations on the net zero path.
Non-State actors-
- A non-state actor (NSA) are organizations and/or individuals that are not affiliated with, directed by, or funded by any government.
- The interests, structure, and influence of NSAs vary widely.
- For example, among NSAs are non-profit organizations, labor unions, non-governmental organizations, banks, corporations, media organizations, business magnates, people’s liberation movements, lobby groups, religious groups, aid agencies, and violent non-state actors such as paramilitary forces.
The role played by Non-state actors-
- The non-state actors have a crucial role in keeping the net zero goal alive.
- They will either help scale the ambition and action we need to ensure a sustainable planet, or else they strongly increase the likelihood of failure.
- The path towards net zero by non-state actors should align with science.
- The recommendations listed in the report also apply to smaller non-state actors as they have an important role to play.
- These actors need support and assistance to follow the listed recommendations.
- Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) provide 50 per cent of employment.
- It is risky if SMEs do not have the financing and technical ability to reduce emissions
- It is also critical to include a just transition plan in the path towards net zero.
A few recommendations to the Non-state actors are-
- Non-state actors must also make their progress public with verified information.
- This should be compared with other counterparts to ensure that climate accounting is honest and transparent.
- Non-state actors purchasing cheap credits rather than immediately cutting their own emissions across their value chain is a red flag.
- By 2025, businesses, financial institutions, cities and regions must ensure that their operations and supply chains don’t contribute to deforestation, peatland loss and the destruction of the remaining natural ecosystems.
- Entities should not lobby to undermine ambitious government climate policies directly or through trade associations or other bodies.
What is Net-Zero Target?
- It is referred to as carbon neutrality, which does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero.
- Rather, it is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by the absorption and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
- Further, absorption of the emissions can be increased by creating more carbon sinks such as forests.
- While the removal of gases from the atmosphere requires futuristic technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
- More than 70 countries have promised to become Net Zero by the middle of the century i.e., by 2050.
- India has promised to cut its emissions to net zero by 2070 at the conference of parties-26(COP) summit.