Climate Finance, Stronger Climate Targets 2030,SDG 13 & Clean, Healthy Environment as a Universal Human Right Flashcards
Why in News?
- Stronger Climate Targets 2030
Recently, India has enhanced its climate change targets for 2030.
In UNFCCC COP 26 at Glasgow in 2021, the Prime Minister of India had made a series of new promises to strengthen climate action from India.
What are India’s Revised Targets?
Emission Intensity:
India is now committing itself to at least 45% reduction in emissions intensity of GDP (emissions per unit of GDP) from 2005 levels.
The existing target was a 33% - 35% reduction.
Electricity Generation:
India is also promising to ensure that at least 50% of installed electricity generation capacity in 2030 would be based on non-fossil fuel-based sources.
This is an increase from the existing 40% target.
Stronger Climate targets 2030.
Significance of Revised Targets
The updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) seek to enhance India’s contributions towards the achievement of the strengthening of global response to the threat of climate change, as agreed under the Paris Agreement.
NDCs embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Such action will also help India usher in low emissions growth pathways.
New NDCs will demonstrate India’s commitment at the highest level for decoupling of economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions.
As a result of the revised NDCs, the Net Zero target by 2030 by Indian Railways alone will lead to a reduction of emissions by 60 million tonnes annually.
Other NDCs:
Increase non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW (gigawatts) by 2030.
Reduce the total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes (BT) by 2030.
Achieve net zero carbon by 2070.
What are India’s Initiatives towards Climate Change?
Reforms in Transport Sector:
India is accelerating its e-mobility transition with the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles Scheme.
A voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and unfit vehicles complements the existing schemes.
India’s Support to EVs:
India is among a handful of countries that support the global EV30@30 campaign, which aims for at least 30% new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030.
India’s advocacy of five elements for climate change “Panchamrit”, at the UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow is a commitment to the same.
Role of Government Schemes:
The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has helped 88 million households to shift from coal-based cooking fuels to LPG connections.
Role of Industries in Low-Carbon Transition:
The public and private sectors in India are already playing a key role in meeting the climate challenge, helped by growing customer and investor awareness, as well as increasing regulatory and disclosure requirements.
Hydrogen Energy Mission:
Focus on generation of hydrogen from green power resources.
Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT):
It is a market-based mechanism to further accelerate as well as incentivize energy efficiency in the large energy-intensive industries
What are the Important Highlights of UNFCCC COP 26?
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties 26 was held in Glasgow, UK in 2021.
Minutes of the meeting:
New Global and Country Targets:
The Glasgow Summit has urged countries to consider strengthening their 2030 targets by COP27 to be held in Egypt in 2022.
The summit targeted global warming not to exceed +1.5°C and got about 140 countries to announce target dates for bringing emissions down to net zero.
The achievement is significant as in the Paris Agreement, the developing countries did not agree to reduce emissions but just the “emissions-intensity” of GDP.
India has also joined the consensus and announced its net-zero target of 2070.
Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda:
A potentially important development which emerged out of COP26 (but outside the COP process) is the Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda endorsed by 42 countries (including India).
This is a cooperative effort to accelerate the development and deployment of clean technologies and sustainable solutions in areas such as clean power, road transport, steel and hydrogen.
Phasing-Down Coal Consumption:
Coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels and an early phasing out of coal is clearly desirable.
European countries have pushed hard for its phase out; however, developing countries have resisted this.
A middle path, as suggested by India, was referred to at the COP26 calling for a “phase-down” of coal-based power.
Best Case Scenario:
An early assessment by Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an independent organisation, suggests that the targets declared, if fully achieved, could limit global warming to around +1.8°C.
However, it also warns that the targets for 2030 are insufficiently ambitious. Unless significantly tightened, the world is more likely to end up seeing global temperatures rise by 2.1°C to 2.4°C.
CLIMATE FINANCE
. Providing valuable platforms for multi-stakeholder engagement is a good place to start. The public-private partnerships that could drive climate finance and project development can benefit from international matchmaking. SDG convenings that bring business, financiers, and governments together can mobilize ambition, remind everyone of the stakes involved, the progress to date, and help to yield relationships that lead to action on the ground.
SDG-13
Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13 or Global Goal 13) is about climate action and is one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. The official mission statement of this goal is to “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”. SDG 13 has five targets which are to be achieved by 2030. They cover a wide range of issues surrounding climate action. The first three targets are “output targets”: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related disasters; integrate climate change measures into policies and planning; build knowledge and capacity to meet climate change. The remaining two targets are “means of achieving” targets: To implement the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; and to promote mechanisms to raise capacity for planning and management. Along with each target, there are “indicators” that provide a method to review the overall progress of each target, along with SDG 13 as a whole. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.
The decade between 2010 - 2019 was the warmest decade recorded in history. Currently climate change is affecting the global community in every nation across the world. The impact of climate change not only impacts national economies, but also lives and livelihoods, especially those in vulnerable conditions. By 2018, climate change continued exacerbating the frequency of natural disasters, such as massive wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and floods. Over the period 2000–2018, the greenhouse emissions of developed countries in transitions have declined by 6.5%. However, the emissions of the developing countries are up by 43% in the period between 2000 and 2013. In 2019, at least 120 of 153 developing countries had undertaken activities to formulate and implement national adaptation plans.
Clean, Healthy Environment as a Universal Human Right
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, the first formal recognition of this right at the global level. The HRC was meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, as part of its 48th regular session.
The resolution was proposed by five HRC member states: Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia, and Switzerland. During the meeting on 8 October 2021, four governments abstained from voting – China, India, Japan, and Russia – and the resolution passed with 43 votes in favor and none opposed. By the text (HRC resolution 48/13), the Council:
recognizes the human right to a “clean, healthy, and sustainable environment”;
encourages States to:
build capacities to protect the environment, cooperate with each other, the UN system, and other bodies and actors, including civil society, business, and national human rights institutions, on implementing the right;
share good practices in fulfilling the right, and build synergies between protecting human rights and protecting the environment;
consider that efforts to protect the environment must fully respect other human rights obligations, including those related to gender equality;
adopt policies for the enjoyment of the right, “including with respect to biodiversity and ecosystems”; and
account for human rights obligations related to this right in implementing the SDGs.
invites the UN General Assembly to consider the matter.
As Universal Right
Also according to the resolution,
- environmental degradation, climate change, and unsustainable development constitute some of the most pressing and serious threats to the ability of present and future generations to enjoy human rights, including the right to life;
- the exercise of human rights is vital to the protection of a clean, healthy and sustainable environment;
- additional measures should be taken for those who are particularly vulnerable to environmental harm; and
a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is critical to the enjoyment of all human rights.
In the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, UN Member States declared that people have a fundamental right to an environment “of quality” that permits a life of dignity and wellbeing. The 2021 resolution was supported by more than 1,300 civil society organizations and Indigenous Peoples’ groups, 15 UN agencies, business groups, more than 90,000 children from around the world, and the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions.
UNEP reports that when the resolution was adopted, applause broke out in the normally quiet Council chamber. Welcoming the resolution, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen, called it a breakthrough for environmental justice and called it “a shield for individuals and communities” against risks to their health and livelihoods. In particular, she said it sends a message to the “one billion children at extremely high risk of the impacts of a changed climate: a healthy environment is your right.” She encouraged the UNGA to consider adopting a similar resolution.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the right must serve as a springboard for transformative economic, social, and environmental policies that will protect people and nature. She added that neither environmental action nor human rights protection can be achieved without the other; their separation is a false one.
Also during the HRC’s 48th session, the Council established a Special Rapporteur to monitor human rights in the context of the climate emergency. The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) said the two decisions – the global recognition of the human right to a healthy environment and the creation of a Special Rapporteur – “signal a new era in rights-based climate policy.” CIEL said the Special Rapporteur decision, in particular, indicates the Council’s understanding of the need to “respond to the fact that climate change is the single greatest threat to the enjoyment of human rights in the 21st century.”
