National Statement by India at COP26 Summit

Why in news?

• Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, delivered the National Statement at COP 26, in Glasgow, Scotland on November 01, 2021

The Panchamrit principles:

• India presented five nectar elements, Panchamrit, to deal with the challenge of climate change:
  • First: India will reach its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030.
  • Second: India will meet 50 percent of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030.
  • Third: India will reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now onwards till 2030.
  • Fourth: By 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by less than 45 percent.
  • Fifth: by the year 2070, India will achieve the target of Net Zero.

About Conference of Parties (COP):

• The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC.
• All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP.
• A key task for the COP is to review the national communications and emission inventories submitted by Parties. They also review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts.
• They also take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements.
• The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise. The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany in March, 1995.
• The COP Presidency rotates among the five recognized UN regions- Africa, Asia, Latin America & the Caribbean, Central & Eastern Europe and Western Europe and Others.

UNFCCC:

• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the Convention or UNFCCC) is an international treaty which acknowledges the existence of anthropogenic climate change and provides the framework for climate change negotiations
• The Convention is created with the ultimate aim of preventing “dangerous” human interference with the climate system.
• According to Article 2, the Convention’s ultimate objective is “to achieve, stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.
• It is a “Rio Convention”, one of three adopted at the “Rio Earth Summit” in 1992.
• Its sister Rio Conventions are the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification.
• Parties to UNFCCC are classified as:
  • Annex I countries: industrialized countries and economies in transition.
  • Annex II countries: developed countries which pay for costs of developing countries.
  • Non-Annex I countries: Developing countries. India is Non Annex party to UNFCC

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Which of the following is/are part of India’s National Statement at COP 26, in Glasgow?

1. To achieve net zero emission by 2040

2. To meet 50 percent of India’s energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030.

3. To reach India’s non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 and 3 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 1,2 and 3

Answer