COP27: India presents plan for long-term decarbonisation
quinta-feira, novembro 17, 2022
India will prioritize a phased transition to cleaner fuels and reduce domestic consumption to reach zero net emissions by 2070. A national report was released on Monday at the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt.
The report for the first time outlines how the world's second-largest coal consumer will deliver on its 2021 decarbonization promise as part of international efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures.
"This is an important milestone. Once again, India has demonstrated that it talks about climate change," Said India's Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav at a COP27 event marking the report's release.
Under the framework of the 2015 Paris Agreement, all countries are required to submit a strategy paper to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, showing how they will help fight global warming. These plans are known as Long-Term Development and Low Emissions Strategies (LT-LEDS). Despite a 2020 deadline for the plans, only 56 countries have so far submitted. India was the last of the world's five largest economies to do so.
India's LT-LEDS focuses on six key areas to reduce net emissions, including electricity, urbanization, transportation, forests, finance and industry. The country, for example, proposes to increase the use of biofuels – mainly the mixture of ethanol in gasoline – by increasing the number of electric vehicles on the roads, along with expanded public transport networks and using more green hydrogen fuel.
India has already committed to gradually reducing coal use along with other nations and has become a major market for renewable energy projects such as solar. What's new in India's strategy, according to Taryn Fransen, an expert in international climate change policy at the nonprofit World Resources Institute in the United States for Reuters, is the focus on reducing consumption at the individual or domestic level, as well as including carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS).
This includes technology that can capture carbon from polluting industries so it never reaches the atmosphere. Environmentalists have warned against using it in a way that prolongs the life of coal plants. "There is a lot of uncertainty about this, but at the same time research by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that we will need a major CO2 removal," Fransen told Reuters.
India said it will work on advancing the technologies used in the CCUS. Unlike Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are also required by the Paris Agreement, LT-LEDS focus on a longer time horizon and do not require countries to report progress.
India updated its NDC in August, committing the country to reduce the intensity of its GDP emissions by 45% from the 2005 level over the next 7 years – an increase of 10 percentage points from the previous 2016 pledge.
While India's LT-LEDS presented an ambitious green transition strategy, Yadav said the country could not "have a situation where the energy security of developing countries is ignored in the name of urgent mitigation."
India and other developing countries have long resisted calls for a rapid move away from fossil fuels that could hurt their economic growth and impose large costs.
"India is having to pay for a crisis it has not caused with money it does not have," said Dipa Singh Bagai, head of India's Natural Resources Defense Council.
India wants countries to agree to gradually reduce all fossil fuels at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, rather than a narrower agreement to gradually reduce coal, as agreed last year, two sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters on Saturday.
Source: RPA news
0 comentários
Agradecemos seu comentário! Volte sempre :)