THE PARIS AGREEMENT AND CARBON NEUTRALITY
One of the important worldwide meetings in climate change is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It gathers together some of the brightest people in climate science every year and serves as a platform for global leaders, nations, and corporations to debate climate consequences.
The famous Paris Agreement — the first significant international agreement to demonstrate that countries from all over the globe, with diverse interests, can join together to solve climate-related problems — is one of the most well-known items to come out of the UNFCCC.
Paris Agreement: An international treaty on climate change The Paris Agreement, also known as the Paris Climate Accord, is a deal between the leaders of over 180 countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep
global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100. The Paris Agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015, at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Paris from November 30 to December 13, 2015. The agreement has been signed by 194 UNFCCC members, with 189 parties as of 31 December 2020. The Paris Agreement replaces the Kyoto Protocol of 2005. The objective of lowering greenhouse gas emissions owing to increasing temperatures and other global concerns was agreed upon by all signatories. Another important aspect of the accord is that it includes nations that rely on oil and gas revenue.
Declaration of India on Paris agreement “The Government of India declares its understanding that as per its national laws; keeping in view its development agenda, particularly the eradication of poverty and provision of basic needs for all its citizens, coupled with its commitment to following the low carbon path to progress, and on the assumption of unencumbered availability of cleaner sources of energy and technologies and financial resources from around the world; and based on a fair and ambitious assessment of global commitment to combating climate change, it is ratifying the Paris Agreement.” The goal of the Paris Climate Agreement is to achieve a global balance between human emissions from sources and removals via sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century. Scientific research summarised in the 2018 IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. It verified that attaining net-zero carbon dioxide emissions between 2050 and 2070 must meet the Paris Agreements far below 2°C temperature objective. This is the problem that carbon neutrality poses. One of the most notable innovations is including such a clear long-term emission goal.
Why is Paris Agreement significant in COP 26?
The world’s governments assembled in Glasgow for the COP26 summit to establish an agreement on far-reaching climate change action. They were under pressure to deliver on historic pledges made in Paris six years ago. The Paris Agreement is based on a five-year cycle of climate action, which is why COP26 is so essential for combating climate change as it is the first five-year meeting after Paris. For the first time, the Paris Commitments brought nearly all of the world’s governments together in a single agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Climate action will be accelerated as a result of the Glasgow Climate Pact. In 2022, all nations committed to examine and increase their present 2030 emissions targets, referred to as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This will be paired with a yearly political roundtable to discuss a worldwide progress report and a 2023 Leaders conference. After six years of debate, the Paris Rulebook, which outlines how the Paris Agreement will be implemented, was finalised in COP 26. It enables the full implementation of the historic agreement, after agreement on a transparency procedure that will hold countries accountable as they meet their goals. Article 6 of the UNFCCC offers a solid framework for nations to trade carbon credits.
What commitment did India make at COP26?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed, among other things, to decrease emissions to net-zero by 2070, reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, and increase the number of renewables in the energy mix to 50% by 2030.
Droughts, heatwaves, heavy rainfall, floods, landslides etc., are the extreme weather conditions emerging most commonly due to climate change. Rising sea levels, loss of biodiversity, and ocean acidification are the other effects
Achieving carbon-neutrality? Carbon neutrality can be defined as the balance between carbon emissions and carbon absorption in carbon sinks from the atmosphere. The technique of taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it is known as carbon sequestration. To achieve net-zero emissions, all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be offset by carbon sequestration. The system that absorbs more carbon than it releases is referred to as a carbon sink. Soil, woods, and seas are the primary natural carbon sinks. Natural sinks are thought to remove between 9.5 and 11 Gt of CO2 per year. In 2019, worldwide CO2 emissions totalled 38.0 Gt. To yet, no artificial carbon sinks have been able to remove significant carbon out of the atmosphere to tackle global warming on a broad scale.
Forest fires, land-use changes, and logging release carbon from natural sinks like forests into the atmosphere. This is why, in order to achieve climatic neutrality, it is critical to cut carbon emissions. In order to reduce emissions and achieve carbon neutrality, emissions in one sector must be offset by reductions in another. This may be accomplished by putting investment into renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other low-carbon technology.
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