{"id":143441,"date":"2021-10-27T20:51:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T15:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=143441"},"modified":"2021-10-29T15:44:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T10:14:39","slug":"why-india-shouldnt-sign-on-to-net-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-india-shouldnt-sign-on-to-net-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Why India shouldn\u2019t sign on to net zero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis<\/strong>: India should not declare a net zero target. Instead it should stake a claim to a fair share of global carbon budget.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The developed world is building up pressure on India to declare a net zero target at the upcoming COP26 meeting at Glasgow.<\/p>\n

But, reaching net zero by a specific time period is irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Instead, as per the latest IPCC report, if we are to limit the increase in the world\u2019s avg temp from pre-industrial levels to those agreed in the Paris Agreement, then we need to cap global cumulative emissions of CO2<\/sub> at the global carbon budget.<\/p>\n

Why the timeline to reach net zero emission reduction target is flawed?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Neither the Paris Agreement nor climate science requires that net zero be reached individually by countries by 2050.<\/p>\n

Claims that the world must reach specific goals by 2030 or 2050 are the product of specific economic models for climate action.<\/strong> These are designed to achieve the Paris goals by the lowest cost methods, without equity and climate justice.<\/p>\n

They put uneven burden of emission reduction requirements on developing countries<\/strong>, despite their already low emissions, to buy time for the developed world for its own transition.<\/p>\n

Less than a fifth of the world has been responsible for three-fifths of all past cumulative emissions, the U.S. and the EU alone having contributed a whopping 45%.<\/p>\n

Promises of net zero in their current form further this hugely disproportionate appropriation of a global commons<\/strong>, while continuing to place humanity in harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

\"chart\"<\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n
Why India must not declare a net zero target?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

India\u2019s contribution to global emissions is so disproportionately low<\/strong> that any sacrifice on its part can do nothing to save the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India is responsible for no more than 4.37%<\/strong> cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial era, even though it is home to more than a sixth of humanity.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s per capita emissions are less than half the world average<\/strong>, less than one-eighth of the U.S.\u2019s, and have shown no dramatic increase like China\u2019s post 2000.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Cannot trust promises of the developed nations<\/strong>: India cannot proceed with the expectation that the developed world and China would limit their emissions further in the future. The failure of the developed world to meet its pre-2020 obligations along with its refusal to acknowledge this provides little confidence for the future.<\/p>\n

Why India must claim its fair share of the global carbon budget?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

It enables the responsible use of coal, and oil and gas<\/strong>. This will help India to come out of the lower middle-income economy status and eradicate poverty, hunger and malnutrition for good.<\/p>\n

Small Industry sector needs expansion<\/strong>: India\u2019s resource-strapped small industries sector, which provides employment and livelihoods to the majority of the population outside agriculture, needs expansion and modernisation.<\/p>\n

Agri sector is in need<\/strong>: The agriculture sector, the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions for India after energy, needs to double its productivity and farmers\u2019 incomes and build resilience.<\/p>\n

All of these will require at least the limited fossil fuel resources made available through a fair share of the carbon budget.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Even if India were to enhance its short-term Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement in some fashion, unnecessary as of now, it should do so while staking a claim to its share of the global commons.<\/p>\n

This will ensure that its efforts will not further enable the free-riding of the developed world and protect its access to this strategic resource, vital to India\u2019s industrial and developmental future.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article \u201cWhy India shouldn\u2019t sign on to net zero<\/strong>\u201d published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 27th Oct 2021<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis: India should not declare a net zero target. Instead it should stake a claim to a fair share of global carbon budget. Introduction The developed world is building up pressure on India to declare a net zero target at the upcoming COP26 meeting at Glasgow. But, reaching net zero by a specific time period… Continue reading Why India shouldn\u2019t sign on to net zero<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10411,216],"class_list":["post-143441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-cop26","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704853986},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}