Developed countries must take the lead in urgent mitigation and providing finance for adaptation, loss and damage: Bhupender Yadav
New Delhi: India on Tuesday welcomed the report of Working Group II (WG2) contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and said the developed countries must take the lead in urgent mitigation and providing finance for adaptation, loss and damage.
Calling the report reaffirms India’s call for equity and climate justice, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav said India is walking the path of climate resilient development under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has demonstrated a clear resolve to move ahead along a sustainable, resource efficient growth path”.
On Monday, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released a report which delivered a stark warning about the impact of climate change on people and the planet.
The report also said the ecosystem collapse, species extension, deadly heat-wave and flood are among the unavoidable multiple climate hazards” the world will face over the next two decade due to global warming.
According to the report, human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting billions of lives all over the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks, with people and ecosystems least able to cope being hardest hit
This is the second in a series of three reports from the the UN’s top climate scientists and its launch comes just over 100 days since the UN climate action summit in Glasgow, COP 26 agreed to step up action to limit global warming to 1.5°C and stave off the worst effects of climate change.
In a statement, the ministry said, “The report affirms that climate change due to historical emissions is leading to serious impacts which are already being felt globally including in developing countries with low contribution to cumulative emissions. These impacts will rise as warming proceeds and will rise rapidly at higher levels of warming”
Highlighting the other aspects of the report, the Ministry said, it is a clarion call for the world to abandon their unsustainable production and consumption and move urgently to climate resilient development. Reference to sustainable lifestyles has already been introduced in the Paris Agreement thanks to India’s efforts, led by the Prime Minister at Paris in 2015.
“Report notes that the impacts and the consequent limitations to adaptation would rise beyond 1.5 degree warming above pre-industrial levels. India notes that the Working Group I contribution to AR6 released in August, 2021 had made clear that developed countries need to rapidly decrease their emissions and reach net zero by 2050 “ it said.
The government said the report is fully acknowledges the importance of losses and damages arising from climate change. Inadequate adaptation due to lack of financial and technological resources, capacity building and other constraints lead to losses and damages. Further losses and damages would increase as some limits to adaptation are being reached and more would be at higher levels of warming.
The Ministry said, India is already walking the path of climate resilient development with its combination of several adaptation-oriented development actions and its contribution to mitigation.
“At COP26, as the implementation of the Paris Agreement began, India reaffirmed its commitment to climate actions, including the goal of net zero by 2070, and the one-word mantra of L.I.F.E. = lifestyles for environment” it said.
It said, “India notes that future reports should strengthen the “solution space” and more comprehensively assess knowledge regarding effectiveness, costs and benefits”.
“India firmly believes that climate change is a global collective action problem that can be solved only through international cooperation and multilateralism” it added.
Taking about the steps being taken to combat climate change, the ministry said India has taken tremendous actions under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to combat climate change by taking several initiatives including, inter-alia, setting up of International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, ‘One Sun, One World, One Grid’ and Infrastructure for Resilient Island States, raising the domestic renewable energy target to 500 GW by 2030, putting in place an ambitious National Hydrogen Mission and continuing efforts to decouple its emissions from economic growth.
“India’s cumulative and per capita current emissions are significantly low and far less than its fair share of the global carbon budget and its actions to address global climate change are compatible with Paris Agreement goals,” it said.
A delegation from India participated in the final discussions on the Summary for Policymakers of the Report, held online from 14th February to 27th February and has joined other nations in approving the Summary for Policymakers of the Report.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies.
