India to unveil its long-term low carbon strategies today
- November 14, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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India to unveil its long-term low carbon strategies today
Subject :Environment
Context-
- At the climate change conference at Egypt, India will unveil its long-term decarbonization plans in pursuit of its goal to reach a net-zero status by 2070.
Background-
- Under the Paris Agreement, countries are mandated to submit long-term action plans with estimated low-emission pathways by 2050 that are consistent with the global goal of keeping temperature rise within 1.5 degrees or 2 degree Celsius from pre-industrial times.
- This is apart from the short-term action plans, called nationally-determined contributions or NDCs, that the countries have to submit, detailing the climate actions they are taking over five- or ten-year periods.
The long-term plans-
- The long-term action plans were supposed to be submitted by 2020 itself, but could not be done due to the pandemic.
- So far, 62 countries have submitted their long-term strategies, including the three largest emitters — China, the United States and the European Union.
- India is the fourth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.
- It will have details of the key sectoral low-carbon transition pathways till the goal of net zero is realized by 2070.
Why it is different from NDCs-
- Long-term strategies are different from the NDCs.
- NDCs contain specific actions or targets that have to be achieved by 2030.
- The long-term strategies have to reveal estimated low-carbon pathways that will lead to a country attaining net-zero status.
How India is planning to achieve Net-Zero Target-
- India stressed that meeting climate goals required the phasing out of all fossil fuels and not just coal.
- Selective singling out of sources of emissions, for either labelling them more harmful or as “green and sustainable” even when they all are all sources of greenhouse gas emissions, had no basis in the best available science.
- India’s proposals did not mention coal but used the latest IPCC reports to emphasise that a phase-down of all fossil fuels was required.
- At last year’s Glasgow meeting, India had forced a last-minute change in one of the decisions on the elimination of coal, getting the phrase “phase-out” replaced with “phase-down”.
India’s stand on mitigation work programme-
- India, backed by some other countries, blocked the introduction of a proposal by the developed nations to focus a new mitigation work programme on the top 20 emitters of greenhouse gases.
- There are a number of developing countries amongst the top 20 emitters with no historical obligations to reduce their emissions.
- These countries are against the reopening of the Paris Agreement which clearly mentions that climate commitments of countries have to be nationally determined and not forced by outside.
India’s reliance on Coal-
- Nearly 55 per cent of India’s energy needs come from coal-based power, even after a massive expansion of the renewable energy sector.
- India would continue to depend on coal as a major source of power generation for three to four decades, even though new coal-fired power plants are unlikely to come up.