COP 26 Takeaways: Relevance
- GS 3: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
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COP 26 Takeaways: Context
- Recently, COP 26 was held at Glaslow, UK where countries have pledged commitments to decrease carbon footprint in the world.
COP26 Summit 2021: Key points
- CoP26 aims to keep alive a receding target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avert damages from the intensified heatwaves, droughts, storms, floods and coastal damage that climate change is already causing.
Slashing methane emission
- Leaders have pledged to stop deforestation by the end of the decade and slash emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane to help slow climate change.
- Nearly 90 countries have joined a S.-and EU-led effort to slash emissions of methane 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels.
- The Global Methane Pledge, first announced in September, now covers emissions from two-thirds of the global economy
- Non-signatory includes China, Russia and India while Australia have decided not to back the pledge.
India’s Expectations from COP-26
Why methane?
- Methane is more short-lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide but it is 80 times more potent in warming the earth.
- Methane is estimated to have accounted for 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times, so cutting methane emission is one of the most effective ways of slowing climate change.
A Climate Dividend- India at the COP26 of the UNFCCC
Saving forests
- More than 100 national leaders pledged to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade, underpinned by $19 billion in public and private funds to invest in protecting and restoring forests.
- The agreement expands a commitment made by 40 countries as part of the 2014 New York Declaration of Forests.
- Under the agreement, 12 countries pledged to provide $12billion of public funding between 2021 and 2025 for developing countries to restore degraded land and tackle wildfires.
- Private sector investors have also pledged to stop investing in activities linked to deforestation such as cattle, palm oil and soybean farming and pulp production.
- Brazil, which has cleared vast swathes of the Amazon rainforest, did make a new commitment on Monday to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, compared with a previous pledge of 43%.
UN Glasgow Climate Change Conference (COP 26)
Why forests
- WRI’s Global Forest Watch revealed that in 2020, the world lost 258,000 sq km of forest — an area larger than the United Kingdom.
- WWF estimates that 27 football fields of forest are lost every minute.
COP 26 key takeaways From india: Read from here