• Mr Modi made the pledge as one of five commitments from his country.
• Indian PM Narendra Modi announced the five major commitments on behalf of India, to mitigate climate change.
• Terming the commitments as "Panchamrit", India's gift to the world, the PM reiterated that India is working very hard on tackling climate change-related issues.

Panchamrit (5 commitments)

1. India will achieve net-zero emissions by 2070
2. India will bring its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030
3. India will bring its economy's carbon intensity down to 45 per cent by 2030
4. India will fulfill 50 per cent of its energy requirement through renewable energy by 2030
5. India will reduce 1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions from the total projected emissions by 2030

Background

• India is the world's fourth biggest emitter of carbon dioxide after China, the US and the EU.
• But its huge population means its emissions per capita are much lower than other major world economies.
• India emitted 1.9 tonnes of CO2 per head of population in 2019, compared with 15.5 tonnes for the US and 12.5 tonnes for Russia that year.

India’s Net Zero Emissions

• India will achieve Net Zero Emissions latest by 2070, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
• Until the recent commitment made, India was the only major emitter that hadn't committed to a timeline to achieve net zero.

Net Zero Emissions

• Net Zero is a commitment which sets a year by which it would ensure its net carbon dioxide emissions would be zero.
• It is also referred to as carbon-neutrality.
• It does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero.
• Rather, net-zero 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, while removal of gases from the atmosphere requires futuristic technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
• This way, it is even possible for a country to have negative emissions, if the absorption and removal exceed the actual emissions.
• A good example is Bhutan which is often described as carbon-negative because it absorbs more than it emits.
• Several other countries, including the UK and France, have already enacted laws promising to achieve a net-zero emission scenario by the middle of the century.
• The European Union is working a similar Europe-wide law, while many other countries including Canada, South Korea, Japan and Germany have expressed their intention to commit themselves to a net-zero future.
• China has promised to go net-zero by 2060.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, delivered the statement on behalf of the BASIC group of countries at the UN Climate Change Conference (CoP-26) underway at Glasgow.

BASIC Countries

The BASIC is a group of four large newly industrialized countries formed by an agreement in 2009.

1. Brazil
2. South Africa
3. India
4. China

• India has officially endorsed a website, made by the Indian climate experts, that lists the historical carbon dioxide emissions of developed countries.
• The website is intended to debunk the narrative provided by many developed countries, and global non-government organisations that focus attention continually on what developing countries must do, constantly demanding greater commitment and action from them.

Climate Equity Monitor (CEM)

• It is an online dashboard for assessing equity in climate action in relation to climate mitigation, energy and resource consumption, and climate policy across the entire world.
• CEM is believed to be the first such initiative from the global South that will compare the policies and actions of Annex-I and Non Annex-I Parties from the perspective of equity and CBDR-RC.
• The database aims to highlight the disparity between the emissions of developed and developing countries with countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and in Western Europe shown as having a net carbon debt while developing countries, including India and China, having net credit.
• The key fact that the database highlights is that it is only fair that developed countries must commit to steeper targets towards curbing emissions than developing countries.
• The website and data tracker is an effort undertaken by the Climate Change Group at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai.
• The analysis and assessment for the website has been carried out by the Climate Change Group at the MSSRF, some members of the Energy, Environment & Climate Change Programme at the National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) Bengaluru, and other independent researchers.

• Sikkim - only with West Bengal
• Goa - with Karnataka and Maharashtra
• Manipur - with Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram
• Tripura - with Assam and Mizoram