Climate talks open with calls for action to save world

NEW DELHI: The 13-day UN climate conference kicked off in Katowice, Poland, on Sunday with negotiators from across the globe assembling to finalise a rulebook for implementation of the Paris Agreement post-2020.


India is represented by a 17-member team, led by environment minister Harsh Vardhan, at the 24th edition of the conference of parties (COP24) which is being held in the backdrop of devastating climate disasters around the globe, from California to Kerala, and Tonga to Japan.


Two recent global reports set the tone for the conference where leaders on its opening day were urged for rapid action to save the world. The reports — the IPCC one on impact of 1.5 degree Celsius of global warming and another on ‘Emission Gap’ by the UNEP — sought urgent actions from the global community to restrict warming much below 2 degree Celsius by the end of the century.

The UNEP report on gaps in climate action indicated that even if all commitments made by countries for the Paris Agreement were achieved, the world would still be on a course to warm by more than 3 degree C this century — a scenario which will be disastrous for the global community.

Besides framing rules and procedures for how countries will meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement in Katowice, the negotiators during the next 12 days will also work on how climate action will be financed and how the countries would need to raise their ambitions (climate action targets) to exceed their respective Paris commitments when they are updated in 2020.

Finalisation of the Paris Agreement Work Programme (PAWP) will make the 2015 global deal fully operational by unlocking ambitious action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to empower developing countries through financial and technological support.

The objective of the Paris Agreement is to strengthen global response to threat of climate change by keeping the average temperature rise this century well below 2 degree C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) and to pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5 degree C.

“This year is likely to be one of the four hottest years on record. Greenhouses gas concentrations in the atmosphere are at record levels and emissions continue to rise. Climate change impacts have never been worse. This reality is telling us that we need to do much more — COP24 needs to make that happen,” UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said in her remarks on the opening day.

India has said it wants an outcome consistent with the principles of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement including equity, Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) and climate justice.

“COP24 should give equal focus to all agenda items, and the outcome of COP24 should be balanced, inclusive, comprehensive and consistent with the principles and provisions of the Convention and its Paris Agreement,” Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday before heading for Katowice.