UN Experts Flag Concerns on EIA Notification

The Paris Climate Agreement establishes a framework for halting and reversing climate change. The voluntary character of the Paris climate agreement, on the other hand, makes it impossible to meet the agreement’s goal of keeping global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to keep it much lower at 1.5 degrees Celsius. To combat the loopholes, the UN Secretary-General recently summoned all UN member nations to the UN Flag Concerns On EIA Notification 2019 in New York, United States. Member nations are expected to provide credible strategies to increase their contributions to climate change mitigation during the summit.

Rising Environmental Concerns

1. Global emissions are at historic highs and show no signs of slowing down.

• According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, worldwide energy-related CO2 emissions increased 1.7 percent in 2018 to a historic high of 33.1 gigaton CO2.
• It was the fastest growth rate since 2013 and 70 percent faster than the average rise since 2010.

1. Winter temperatures in the Arctic have climbed by 3°C since 1990, making the previous four years the highest on record.
2. The sea level is increasing.

• The sea level is rising at a pace of around one-eighth of an inch every year.
• Global sea level was 2.6 inches higher in 2014 than it was in 1993, the highest yearly average in the satellite record (1993-present).

1. Global emissions are leading to climate change, leading to life-threatening effects on health, including air pollution, heat waves, and food security threats.
2. According to the UN, the world’s efforts would need to be increased by three to five times in order to meet the Paris climate agreement’s aim.

Highlights of the Summit

The Secretary-General has highlighted six action areas that have been identified as having a high potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and are also crucial for achieving the Paris Agreement’s and Sustainable Development Goals’ goals.

1. Transition to a cleaner energy source

• Only a few nations make particular promises to enhance energy efficiency in their climate policies, despite the fact that energy efficiency may save up to 40% of emissions.
• As a result, a new Three Percent Club was established at the peak.
• It comprises nations and international organisations who have pledged to boost energy efficiency by 3% year throughout their economies and industries.
• The Three Percent Club includes India.
• India has also said that by 2022, it will have increased renewable energy capacity to more than 175 GW.

2. Solutions derived from nature

• The Nature-Based Solutions Coalition produced new ideas to bring down global emissions, which were discussed during the summit (co-led by China and New Zealand).
• It comprises initiatives to protect and restore marine and terrestrial ecosystems, promote regenerative agriculture and supply chain greening, and push novel funding methods to scale up nature-based solutions.
• It also emphasised the value of nature in governance, decision-making, and finance; inferring that full participation of governments is needed to achieve the goals.

3. Cities and Local Initiatives

• Cities are critical to safeguarding our climate future and putting national climate policies into action.
• Cities consume more than two-thirds of the world’s energy and are already feeling the consequences of the climate emergency, particularly among the most vulnerable people.
• New pledges on low-emission buildings, mass transportation and urban infrastructure, and resilience for the urban poor can help advance mitigation and resilience at the urban and municipal levels.

4. Adaptation and Resilience

• The IPCC Special Report on the Impacts of 1.5°C Global Warming indicates that immediate and transformative adaptation is required, but that adaptation is not keeping pace with the magnitude of the impacts.
• As a result, the summit aimed to promote global efforts to confront and manage climate change’s consequences and dangers, particularly in the most vulnerable populations and countries.
• India has also committed to spending $50 billion over the next five years on the Jal Jeevan Mission, which aims to save water, gather rainfall, and develop water resources.

5. Transition in the Industry

• Many nations, including India, have organised a new Industry Transition Leadership Group to decarbonize energy-intensive businesses, in order to bring down global emissions.
• Steel, cement, aluminium, aviation, and shipping, among other energy-intensive industries, are predicted to emit 15.7 gigatons of GHGs by 2050.
• While pursuing efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, it is vital to cut emissions in the short term and speed the transition to low-carbon industrial development.
• This goal was set at the Costa Rican summit (A pre-summit to CoP 25 of UNFCCC).

6. Finance

• The conference aimed to bring together public and private financing to accelerate decarbonization in all important industries.
• It aims to harmonise public and private finance in order to achieve a net-zero economy (carbon emission).

1. In addition, three other crucial issues were underlined at the summit:

• Mitigation Strategy: To build support for aggressive Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and long-term strategies to meet the Paris Agreement’s targets.
• Youth Engagement and Public Mobilisation: to motivate people all around the globe to take action on climate change, as well as to guarantee that young people are included and represented in all elements of the Summit.
• Social and political drivers: to promote pledges in areas that influence people’s well-being, such as decreasing air pollution, creating decent employment, improving climate adaption efforts, and safeguarding workers and vulnerable groups.

Conclusion

Energy is already being delivered at a lower cost than in the fossil-fuel economy because of new technology and technical solutions. Solar and onshore wind are presently the cheapest sources of energy, and they may be used to generate new bulk electricity in almost all major economies. In this perspective, the International Solar Alliance is a positive step forward. Carbon trade has to be re-energized to bring down global emissions. New carbon pricing must represent the full cost of emissions, from climate danger to air pollution’s health risks. Costa Rica’s pioneering position in climate mitigation should be emulated by other countries. Costa Rica’s energy is renewable to the tune of more than 98 percent, while the country’s forest cover has increased to more than 53 percent following decades of deforestation. In 2017, the country ran on renewable energy for a record 300 days. Full participation of governments is needed in their individual nations; governments must push initiatives like ‘ActNow’ and ‘Fridays for Future’.