Developed countries have been committing towards the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. In this context, Examine the objections raised by India against the concept of net-zero emissions goal. (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 4 years
KEY POINTS
· Net-zero, which is also referred to as carbon-neutrality, does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero.
· It is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by absorption and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
· Absorption of the emissions can be increased by creating more carbon sinks such as forests.
Objections
· Over the next two to three decades, India’s emissions are likely to grow at the fastest pace in the world, to pull hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
· Most of the carbon removal technologies right now are either unreliable or very expensive.
· The net-zero goal does not figure in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the new global architecture to fight climate change.
· India has been arguing that instead of opening up a parallel discussion on net-zero targets outside of the Paris Agreement framework, countries must focus on delivering on what they have already promised.
· Several studies have shown that India is the only G-20 country whose climate actions are compliant to the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperatures from rising beyond 2°C.
· Even the actions of the EU, which is seen as the most progressive on climate change, and the US are assessed as “insufficient”.
· No major country achieved the emission-cut targets assigned to them under the Kyoto Protocol, the climate regime preceding the Paris Agreement.
· India has been arguing that the 2050 carbon-neutrality promise might meet a similar fate, although some countries are now binding themselves in law.
