India’s Plans on Climate Ambition Summit 2020
By: Vishnu Aravindhan
Tags: Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Issues, USA, India

Climate Ambition Summit was convened by the United Nations, United Kingdom, and France in partnership with Chile and Italy. So this particular summit marks the five years since the inauguration of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The Paris agreement back then was discussed in the year 2015, and 2020 marks the fifth year since the Paris agreement was initiated. So this Climate Ambition Summit is basically one of the summits, which will bring all the countries on a common platform where it is expected to make sure that these countries who are part of this particular summit submit their own ambitious target with respect to fighting the climate change. They make a new commitment to tackle climate change and also deliver on the goals that they made with reference to the Paris agreement.

So basically, what we have is something called as the nationally determined targets. In these nationally determined targets, a particular country’s implementation will be discussed under this particular summit. So basically, they will also speak about the climate finance commitment, about the vulnerable countries and also ambitious adaption plans and the underlying policies to make sure that they are implementing all that they said with respect to the Paris agreement. So the leaders from the government, business community, and civil society all gathered at this virtual summit to make sure that they have all the plans and preparations for the execution of the Paris agreement.

India’s Contribution

With respect to India, we have the prime minister, Narendra Modi, who went on to address the Climate Ambition Summit. According to India, India has said that it is not only on track to make sure that it is implementing the Paris agreement and its nationally determined goals and commitments, but it will also exceed much beyond the expectations as well. Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on to say that India has reduced emissions intensity by 21 percent over the 2005 levels, but the goal is between 33 percent and 35 percent of the GDP by the year 2020, and all these programs and mechanisms will be implemented on the basis of two important pillars. They are,

Increase the renewable energy sector, reduce the thermal power plant, and look at alternative sources of energy like renewable energy, solar energy, and wind energy.

Another important factor is we increase the forest cover. So we would be able to reduce emissions on the basis of two important pillars. One is by using or increasing renewable energy and at the same time by increasing the forest cover.

When it comes to the renewable energy sector, we have to focus on this solar energy sector. Currently, the capacity of the solar energy sector is about 36 gigawatts, and the ambition that is set by the government of India is about 100 gigawatts of solar power capacity. So what we have to make sure that we have to increase from 36 gigawatts to about 100 gigawatts.

Requirements for India to Achieve this Summit

The requirement is to promote rooftop solar installations. But when it comes to this particular agenda, there has been less progress that has been made by the state government. So the state government has no enthusiasm, or even if they have, there is very little encouragement when it comes to the execution of this particular roof solar top installations. That has been the major concern when it comes to this solar sector.

Now when it comes to the forest cover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that there’ll be an increase in the forest cover when it comes to India. But the problem with respect to forest cover is that all the statistics, the afforestation data gave by the state government are not verified yet. Since whether there is an increase or decrease is based only on the data and statistics. But the forestation data plan given by the state government is still not verifiable. However, when it comes to the forest data, all the benefits that this will provide is in terms of reduction as the carbon sink, it will also make sure that there is the protection of the biodiversity, influencing the climate system, and it also makes sure that there are resources that which is accommodated to the communities living in the forest areas. But the problem with forest cover right now is that its statistics and data given by the state government are not verifiable.

Other Country’s Contribution

At the same time, other countries have also said that during the Climate Ambition Summit, they will also promise to inculcate or come up with targeted plans as well. When it comes to the United Kingdom, it has pledged to double its climate finance contribution to USD 15.5 Billion over the next five years. Then we have China’s commitment to lowering its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2030. We have the European Union, which has also made commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2030. Then we also have the European Investment Bank, which also announced a goal of 50 percent of the investment going forward to climate and environmental sectors by the year 2025.

I hope this is useful for you guys and Thanks For Reading…

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