‘Greenprint for Chennai’ report launched at CoP 27

‘Greenprint for Chennai’ report launched at CoP 27

Subject : Environment

Context: The Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, today launched a report titled ‘Greenprint for Chennai – Integrating Natural Infrastructure in City Planning’, at the COP27 international climate conference currently underway here.

Concept:

• The report has been prepared by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), an environmental advocacy body based in the US.
• It has its presence in India since 2017.
• TNCis the leading conservation organization working to make a positive impact around the world in more than 76 countries and territories.
• Founded in 1951, the mission of The Nature Conservancy is to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.
• The Greenprint report ends in a bunch of recommendations such as,
  • Creation of new wetlands
  • Restoration of existing wetlands where urbanization is projected to increase.
  • Creation of Water Fund
• Water fund: A water fund is a governance and finance mechanism that improves water security by allowing downstream water users to invest collectively in upstream water and land conservation.

About CoP 27 Conference: 

• Egypt’s coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh is hosting the 27th session of the Conference of Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 6 to 18 November 2022.

Background :

• The CoP comes under the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention (UNFCCC) which was formed in 1994.
• The UNFCCC was established to work towards “stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.”
• The UNFCCC has 198 parties including India, China and the USA. COPmembers have been meeting every year since 1995.

Key agenda of the COP27

 Loss and Damage Funding

• The term ‘Loss and Damage’ refers to the economic and non-economic impacts of climate change, including extreme events in countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
• Rich countries, historically responsible for the climate crisis, have bullied poorer nations to protect polluters from paying up for climate damages.
• The term was brought up as a demand in 1991 by the island country of Vanuatu, which was representing the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

Major initiatives announced in the COP 27 meeting:

International Climate Change University:

• The President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe has proposed to set up an international climate change university in Sri Lanka, with an ancillary institution in the Maldives.
• It was reiterated that Sri Lanka and Maldives as island nations are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change.

UAE-Egypt Deal:

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt have struck a deal on the sidelines of the summit to develop one of the world’s largest wind farms.
• Once completed, the 10 GW onshore wind project in Egypt will produce approximately 47,790 GWh of clean energy annually.
• This would offset nearly 9% (23.8 million tonnes) of Egypt’s current carbon dioxide emissions.

Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund

• IRAF, a multi-donor trust fund of 50 million dollar is launched by Coalition for Disaster Resilience Infrastructure.
• It is established with the support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), will be managed by the United Nation Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (UN MPTFO) in New York.

India’s Participation in COP27:

• The Environment Minister of India Shri Bhupender Yadav is leading the Indian delegation to COP-27.
• India would press developed countries to fulfil their commitment to delivering $100 billion of climate finance annually.
• It would also press for enhanced transparency and more institutional mechanisms to make these funds available to developing countries that are most vulnerable to climate change.