- Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2019 Climate Action Summit has met India’s Union Environment Minister in New Delhi.
- 2019 Climate Action Summit is scheduled to be held in New York in September 2019. The summit has asked national governments to come up with concrete plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020 in in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% in next 10 years, and to net zero emissions by 2050.
- The Summit seeks to develop ambitious solutions in six areas: a) a global transition to renewable energy; b) sustainable and resilient infrastructures and cities; c) sustainable agriculture, d) management of forests and oceans; e) resilience and adaptation to climate impacts; and f) alignment of public and private finance with a net zero economy.
- The UN has also announced a ‘Clean Air Initiative’. It calls on governments to achieve air quality that is safe for citizens and to align climate change and air pollution policies by 2030.
- As a commitment to the Paris Agreement (2015), nations have to put forward national climate actions they intend to take to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. These are called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).
- India’s INDCs include a) reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33% to 35% by 2030 from 2005 level, b)increase total cumulative electricity generation from fossil free energy sources to 40% by 2030, c) create additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons through additional forest and tree cover.
- The Paris agreement (2015) is an international agreement with the framework of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It seeks to combat climate change and accelerate the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.
