COP24: Future Course of action – II

Why in news?

The United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is hosting the 24th Conference of Parties (CoP-24) meeting in Katowice, Poland.

What will be the focus of the meeting?

• The focus of CoP-24 is largely on implementation of measures that was agreed to in the Paris Agreement Work Programme (PAWP).
• The key tasks cut out for this meeting would include –

1. Drafting a well-balanced operation rulebook
2. Bringing clarity on domestic processes for preparing an updated nationally determined contributions (NDC) by 2020
3. Assessing progress on climate finance
4. Engaging private sector investors to stimulate climate actions using relevant market mechanisms.

• Also, the most recent political developments and the report on 1.5C Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will have a mixed impact on the CoP 24 negotiations.

What are the steps taken by India in this regard?

• Some of the major steps that India has taken to fulfil its climate obligations are Just transition, nature-based solutions (NBS) and e-mobility.
• Just transition - It refers to the importance of proactively managing socio-economic challenges arising out of the transitions from business-as-usual pathways to a decarbonised economy.
• Over the years, India has demonstrated leadership to establish climate justice, galvanising like-minded countries and agencies and needs to work closely with the international community.
• NBS - India’s NDC proposal to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO 2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030 underscores the opportunities offered by NBS.
• It could help improve the use of open space, particularly in the urban context, and deliver a wide range of non-market, community-level resilience dividends.
• Also, the actions here would help India achieve both its NDC goals and SDG goals.
• E-mobility - On its commitment to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP, India is promoting e-mobility.
• The government is focusing on manufacturing, shared infrastructure, including better urban design, accelerated adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and other pathways.
• However, the urgent need is to expedite and strengthen sub-national level actions, providing the capacities and resources to execute the State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC).

What should be done?

• Climate finance that was pledged by the developed nations to the Green Climate Fund ($100 billion by 2022) has to be implemented. 
• A clear consensus on the “rule book” that helps to achieve decarbonising economies should be reached.
• Thus, the UN climate change meet in Poland must take the Paris agenda forward and ramp up ambitions.

Source: Business Line