COP27: Getting back to Net Zero; International Monetary Fund lists three key priorities for climate mitigation

New Delhi: The 27th session of the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC or COP27 will be held at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt from 6 November to 18 November in an effort to build on previous successes and pave the way for effectively tackling global climate change.

This year’s COP27 summit will be even more crucial in the backdrop of several extreme weather events – typhoons in Bangladesh, unprecedented floods in Pakistan, heatwaves in Europe, wildfires in North America, dry rivers in China, and droughts in Africa.

According to a blog authored by International Monetary Fund’s Kristalina Georgieva Managing Director, the extreme events will only get worse if the global community fail to act.

With scientists predicting more adverse events, lives and livelihoods of millions of vulnerables are at stake.

“Mass migration could follow. And, failure to get emissions on the right trajectory by 2030 may lock global warming above 2 degrees Celsius and risk catastrophic tipping points–where climate change becomes self-perpetuating,” Georgieva argued in the blog.

“If we act now, not only can we avoid the worst, but we can also choose a better future. Done right, the green transformation will deliver a cleaner planet, with less pollution, more resilient economies, and healthier people.”

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She added getting there requires action on three fronts – steadfast policies to reach net zero by 2050, strong measures to adapt to the global warming that’s already locked in, and staunch climate finance to help vulnerable countries.

Net zero by 2050

The good news is that about 140 countries, accounting for 91 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, have already proposed or set net-zero targets for around mid-century.

On the contrary, Georgieva said the bad news is that net-zero rhetoric does not match reality.

On adaptation, it focused on investments in resilience – early warning systems and climate-smart agriculture.

Climate finance:

Doing more on climate financing is vital. Advanced economies must meet or exceed the pledge of USD 100 billion in climate finance for developing countries.

Climate finance typically refers to any financing that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change.

Notably, ahead of the annual climate mitigation summit, India said it looks forward to substantial progress on the discussions related to climate finance, particularly for developing countries, and clarity on its definition.

India is expected to raise matters such as climate finance for the developing world where per capita emissions are comparatively quite low against the developed world in order to address carbon mitigation.

What did India pledge at COP26 held in 2021?

At the COP26 summit in Glasgow in late 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to an ambitious five-part “Panchamrit” pledge, including reaching 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity, to generate half of all energy requirements from renewables, to reduce emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030.

India also aims to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 45 per cent. Finally, India commits to net-zero emissions by 2070.

Walking the talk, India has gone ahead and banned the use of several single-use plastics starting July 2022.

The adverse impacts of littered single-use plastic items plastic on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including in marine environments are globally recognized.

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