Mid-century target for net zero inadequate: India

• Energy and environment ministers from the Group of 20 nations participated in G20 climate summit in Naples, Italy.
• The key topics of discussion at the summit included: combating climate change, accelerating the ecological transition, making financial flows consistent with the Paris Agreement objectives, opportunities for sustainable and inclusive recovery enabled by innovative technological solutions of the energy sector, and building smart, resilient, and sustainable cities.

• The parties haven’t been able to agree on specific actions and firm timetables needed to reach net-zero global emissions by 2050 and keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

India’s stand:

• India said that pledges by some countries to achieve Net Zero GHG emissions or ‘carbon neutrality’ by mid-century were inadequate, when considering the rights of developing countries to economic growth.
• India has urged G20 countries to commit to bringing down per capita emissions to Global average by 2030 considering the rights of developing countries to economic growth.
• Unlike some countries which have set carbon neutrality targets by 2050 or 2060, India has resisted committing to any such hard deadlines given its developmental needs and the need for climate justice.

Concerns

• Average global temperatures have already risen by more than 1 degree compared to the pre-industrial baseline used by scientists and are on track to exceed the 1.5-2 degree ceiling.
• Countries around the world are started facing the effects of climate change, like deadly floods in Europe and China, fires in the United States and sweltering temperatures in Siberia.
• As per the National Determined Contributions (NDC) submitted to the UNFCCC under the Paris Agreement, the pledge of countries like the United States and the U.K. fall short of the fair share of emission reduction by relatively larger margins than developing countries like India.
• Reaching a global consensus on the issue of carbon neutrality would be extremely difficult to reach given the scale of the differences between the different countries.
• India’s position as the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter but also with among the lowest per capita emissions means that it has always resisted a hard deadline — some countries have set their target years as 2050 or 2060 — to commit to a net-zero future.
• It is expected that the forthcoming COP 26 talks in Glasgow will see a commitment by the United States.

Net zero emission

• The net zero emissions refer to a situation where a country is able to remove at least as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it is emitting.
• This can be done by increasing forest cover or through technologies such as carbon capture.

G20

• It is an informal group of 19 countries and the European Union, with representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
• The G20 membership comprises a mix of the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies, representing about two-thirds of the world’s population, 85% of global gross domestic product, 80% of global investment and over 75% of global trade.
• Members: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union.
• It deals with International Financial stability and all economic issues especially Trade War.
• It also aims to solve BoP problems and financial markets by improved coordination of monetary, fiscal, and financial policies.