International Day of Climate Action

International Day of Climate Action

Subject – Environment

Context – International Day of Climate Action: All talk, no show on Paris Agreement targets

Concept –

• The world economy is estimated to shrink by 6 per cent in 2020. This is happening when the world is witnessing some of its worst storms, heat waves, ice melting and wildfires, making the twin challenges of climate change and COVID-19 one of the worst periods in human history since the 1930s.
• Many like Germany and France are also trying to integrate climate change mitigation into their post-pandemic economic recovery strategies.
• International Energy Agency (IEA) has planned a three-year investment totalling $1 trillion to work towards a green post-pandemic recovery, according to its World Energy Outlook Special Report released in June 2020.
  • The IEA, will now invest in initiatives like energy efficiency, wind and solar power. That would cut down 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next three years and add 1.1 per cent to the global economic growth every year.
• There is also a renewed stress on innovation and new technologies as evidenced by the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance launched by the European Union (EU) in July 2020.
• On September 22, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping speaking at the virtual 75th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly announced that his country would become carbon neutral by 2060.
  • This was the first such long-term mitigation announcement to come from the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter on the planet, which accounts for 28 per cent of total emissions.
  • China depends heavily on fossil fuels to meet its energy needs both for its massive manufacturing sector as well domestic consumption. Therefore, it would need a significant overhaul of its energy sector to be able to achieve its intended targets.
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Global Warming of 1.5°C report had said in 2018 that the world would have to be carbon-neutral by 2050 to contain the planet’s warming to less than 1.5°C over pre-Industrialisation levels.
• EU is also ramping up its climate action, aiming for a more ambitious 2030 target, and climate neutrality by 2050.
• China, the EU and the US account for 45 per cent of global GHG emissions.
• Under the current scenario, according to IPCC, the Earth is on a path to be warmed by 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052.
• Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2020, released by non-profits Climate Action Network, German Watch and New Climate Institute, no country has done well enough to get into the very high rating in the index which is basically the top three ranks of the index.
  • The index takes into account GHG emissions of countries in a particular year giving it a 40 per cent weightage, along with renewable energy, energy use and climate policy, giving each of them 20 per cent weightage.
  • Both China and the EU, which have made major announcements, are under medium performers.
  • The US, on the other hand, was the worst performer on the index.

Some important facts –

• Current global pledges will leave the world 2.4 degree C (1.9-3 degree C) warmer by 2100.
• The current national policies are even less ambitious and will push the temperature by 2.9 degree C (2.1-3.9 degree C).