The United Nations in its latest report appreciated Bharat for keeping
carbon emissions comparatively low despite a large population base and poor air
quality across the national capital region.
“India accounts for 18 per cent of the world population, but to date only
contributed five per cent of warming,” said the UN Emissions Gap Report 2023.
Per capita territorial-based greenhouse gas emissions in US and Russia
are more than double the world average of 6.5 tonnes, it added.
Climate change is a world-wide crisis, and the reason is that the world
has to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C to evade catastrophe.
“To avert catastrophic health impacts and prevent millions of climate
change-related deaths, the world must limit temperature rise to 1.5°C,” stated WHO
in a report.
Global warming of even 1.5°C is not considered safe. However, every
additional tenth of a degree of warming will take a serious toll on people’s
lives and health, the report added.
Despite warnings, calculations show that global temperature is certain to
rise by 3°C even if conditional Nationally Determined Contributions and all
net-zero pledges are followed.
Even in this most optimistic scenario, the likelihood of limiting global
warming to 1.5°C is only 14 per cent, and the multiple scenarios leave open a
large possibility that global warming will exceed 2°C or even 3°C, asserted the
latest UN report.
Meanwhile, Bharat has pledged to achieve the Net Zero emissions target by
2070. Science & Technology Junior Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said Bharat is
set to achieve its short-term and long-term targets under the Panchamrit Action
Plan.
These include reaching a non-fossil fuel energy capacity of 500 GW by
2030 and fulfilling at least half of its energy requirements via renewable
energy by 2030.
NE Watch Desk
