Thinking Point
Dr Ravinder Pall Saini
The writer is I.F.S. (retd.), PhD. (Forest Entomology), MBA (HRM), Member, Board of Management, Forest Research University, Dehradun
It is common knowledge now that human activity-induced changes in climate are leading to intense droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms, and declining biodiversity and affecting health, ability to grow food, housing, safety, and work.
In a series of UN reports, thousands of scientists and government reviewers agreed that limiting global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C would help us avoid the worst climate impacts and maintain a livable climate. Yet policies currently in place point to a 2.8°C temperature rise by the end of the century. Many climate change solutions can deliver economic benefits, including global frameworks and agreements to guide progress, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Paris Agreement. Three broad categories of action are: cutting emissions, adapting to climate impacts, and financing required adjustments.
Initiatives for action
Governments, businesses and civil society members are connecting in climate initiatives to speed the pace of climate action. Initiated at the 2019 Climate Action Summit held at the United Nations, the initiatives are reducing emissions, tackling critical concerns such as jobs and gender equality, unlocking finance, building sustainable infrastructure, using nature-based solutions and advancing adaptation and climate resilience.
1. Energy
a. Accelerating Renewable Energy: Some developing States and their partners have come together to share strategies and galvanise momentum in the transition to renewable and resilient energy systems.
b. Climate action for jobs: This initiative has developed a roadmap and regional strategies for climate action that put people’s jobs and well-being at the heart of the transition to a green economy.
c. Cool coalition: The world is coming together to deliver efficient, climate-friendly cooling for all, including through enhanced national climate plans.
d. Energy efficiency alliance & Three Percent Club: A coalition of government, corporate and non-governmental leaders, this alliance champions accelerated energy efficiency, helping individual countries prepare roadmaps to boost efficiency. The Three Percent Club sets a target of an annual 3 per cent improvement in energy efficiency.
e. Powering past coal alliance: Countries, investors, utilities and cities are among those working on early retirement from coal as an energy source
2.Industry and transport
a. Action towards climate-friendly transport: Over 100 organisations have forged the largest coalition ever dedicated to shifting all forms of transport to zero emissions.
b. Decarbonising shipping: A powerful alliance of more than 150 maritime, energy, infrastructure and finance companies, the coalition has a moon-shot ambition: commercially viable, deep-sea zero-emission vessels operating by 2030. The Sea Cargo Charter defines benchmarks to decarbonise the transport of bulk shipping containers. Under the Poseidon Principles, 15 banks have disclosed how well shipping industry loan portfolios align with climate goals.
c. Leadership group for industry transition: Aimed at net-zero carbon emissions from industry by 2050, the initiative has established industry groups and developed roadmaps for heavy industries where carbon emissions are difficult to abate. A transition tracker profiles industries in various countries.
3. Business and finance
a. Business ambition for 1.5°C: This coalition of business and industry leaders calls on companies to set ambitious and science-based emissions reduction targets, aiming for net zero in line with a 1.5°C future.
b. Coalition of finance ministers for climate action: Fiscal and economic policymakers from over 60 countries generating around 40 per cent of global emissions are calling for urgent climate action and investment and a just transition built on the creation of millions of new jobs. Six Helsinki Principles guide measures such as effective carbon pricing and the integration of climate change into macroeconomic and fiscal policy, among other issues.
c. Net-Zero asset owner alliance: An international group of over 40 institutional investors with over $6.6 trillion in assets has made a bold commitment to transition investment portfolios to net-zero emissions by 2050.
4. Resilience and adaptation
a. A call for action: The call sets a higher bar for ambition on adaptation and resilience, with endorsement by 130 countries and 86 organisations. It urges reaching the vulnerable, rapidly scaling up finance and integrating climate risk into imagining our future.
b. Coalition for climate resilient investment: This initiative mobilises the global private financial industry, in partnership with key private and public institutions, to integrate climate risks in investment decision-making.
c. Coalition for disaster-resilient infrastructure: Governments, UN organisations, multilateral banks, businesses and knowledge institutions are collaborating to build resilience to climate and disaster risks into infrastructure systems.
d. Insu Resilience Group Partnership Vision 2025: The partnership helps strengthen the resilience of developing countries and protect the lives and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people from disasters. It also tracks noteworthy gender-smart climate solutions through a centre of excellence.
e. LDC Initiative for effective adaptation and resilience: The group works for a climate-resilient future in the least developed countries. It has made strides in devising standards for climate adaptation in local communities, along with a financing mechanism.
f. Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership: A coalition from the climate, humanitarian and development communities leverages knowledge, the exchange of solutions and new partnerships to reduce disaster risks, aiming to make 1 billion people safer.
5. Nature-based solutions
a. Campaign for Nature: This growing coalition of more than 100 conservation organisations calls on policymakers to commit to a science-driven, ambitious new deal for nature. It hinges on protecting at least 30 per cent of the planet by 2030, backed by sufficient financial resources and the full realisation of indigenous leadership and rights.
b. Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance: ORRAA connects governments, financial institutions, the insurance industry, environmental organisations and actors from the Global South to build resilience to ocean risk. It pioneers finance and insurance products aimed at incentivising $500 million in investment in nature-based solutions by 2030.
6. Urban planning
Leadership for Urban Climate Investment: A coalition of governments, financial institutions, climate funds, city networks and think tanks has developed the LUCI framework to help 2,000 cities prepare and finance climate projects, realising 20 per cent of this target so far. A City Climate Finance Gap Fund supports the process, drawing on collaboration with multilateral development banks and bilateral donors.
Net Zero
Put simply, net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions reabsorbed from the atmosphere by oceans and forests, for instance. Science clearly shows that to avert the worst impacts of climate change and preserve a livable planet; global temperature increase needs to be limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Currently, the Earth is already about 1.1°C warmer than it was in the late 1800s, and emissions continue to rise. To keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C – as called for in the Paris Agreement – emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
Means to achieve Net Zero
Transitioning to a net-zero world is one of the greatest challenges humankind has faced. It calls for nothing less than a complete transformation of how we produce, consume and move about. The energy sector is the source of around three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions today and holds the key to averting the worst effects of climate change. Replacing polluting coal, gas, and oil-fired power with energy from renewable sources, such as wind or solar, would dramatically reduce carbon emissions.
Global effort to reach Net Zero
An evolving coalition of countries, cities, businesses and other institutions is undertaking sincere technical efforts to get to net-zero emissions. More than 70 countries, including the biggest polluters – China, the United States, and the European Union – have set a net-zero target, covering about 76% of global emissions. More than 3,000 businesses and financial institutions are working with the Science-Based Targets Initiative to reduce their emissions in line with climate science. More than 1000 cities, over 1000 educational institutions, and over 400 financial institutions have joined the Race to Zero, pledging to take rigorous, immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030.
The growth in net-zero pledges has been accompanied by a proliferation of criteria with varying levels of robustness. To develop stronger and clearer standards for net-zero emissions pledges by non-State entities such as businesses, investors, cities and regions, and speed up their implementation, UN Secretary-General António Guterres in March 2022 established a High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities. The Expert Group presented its recommendations at COP27 on 8 November 2022.
Need to plan to achieve targets
So far, the promises made by governments to date fall far short of what is required. Current national climate plans – for 193 parties to the Paris Agreement taken together – would lead to a sizable increase of almost 11% in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to 2010 levels. Getting to net zero requires all governments – first and foremost, the biggest emitters – to substantially strengthen their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and take bold, immediate steps towards reducing emissions now. The Glasgow Climate Pact called on all countries to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their NDCs by the end of 2022, but only 24 new or updated climate plans were submitted by September 2022. ([email protected])
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