Increasing population & industrialisation has led to deforestation and increase in waste & pollution.
These factors have caused a drastic increase in greenhouse gases.
E.g., carbon dioxide is one of the leading greenhouse gases, and its concentration has gone up 45%, from 280 ppmParts per million—also expressed as milligrams per litre. in the year 1750 to 415 ppm in the year 2019.
These gases have the potential to trap the sunlight & increase temperature.
An excessive increase in temperature leads to bad outcomes such as water deficit, extinction of certain animal species etc.
The rise in temperature had been concerning the environmentalists for a while, so an international conference (Earth Summit) was called upon in Brazil in 1992.
One thing led to another, and by 1994, the international government members signed a treaty UNFCCC intending to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions.
These members, called parties, meet each year at a conference (called Conference of Parties – COP) to discuss climate change matters.
The first COP was convened in 1995, and this year (COP26) is the 26th time these governments are meeting.
At COP21, the parties reached an agreement called the Paris Agreement to limit the greenhouse gas emissions in this century to levels that would prevent global temperatures from increasing more than 2°C above the temperature benchmark set before the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
So, if the temperature at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution was 10°C, the benchmark for the 21st century was 12°C, but it was also agreed that efforts would be made to pursue a target of 11.5°C.
While the industrial revolution started in the 1700s, the researchers agreed to consider the period of 1850-1900 as the baseline because that was considered more reasonable.
Now, Paris Agreement seeks commitments from all nations to cut their climate-altering pollution, and that is what makes the COP talks so difficult.
Developing nations say rich countries destroyed the planet as they industrialised, and it’s now unfair they’re stopping the developing countries whose progress is hugely reliant on fossil fuels.
E.g., coal contributes to around 37% of the global power supply, but it has around 60% share of the energy mix in India and China.
And the transition to cleaner sources of energy is an expensive affair.
That is why developed nations pledged a decade ago that by 2020 they would raise $100 billion per year to help developing countries transition to cleaner energy.
So far, they have failed to deliver on the promise, and developing countries are not ready to be “preached” by those who themselves haven’t fulfilled their promises.
E.g., the US is struggling to pledge even $11.4 billion annually from 2024, while experts say it should be contributing $43 billion based on the wealth, emissions and population size.
India announced yesterday that it would go net-zero by 2070 but expects the developed nations to come true to their promises.
To meet the target of only 1.5°C increase by 2100, the world has to reach net-zero carbon dioxide by 2050 and net-zero across all greenhouse gases by 2070.
However, the current plans, as they are, would lead to a 2.4°C increase in temperature by the year 2100, which is far higher than the target and can be devastating.
Therefore, India’s announcement is being seen as a big win by the climate champions.
