Emission cut: Major nations not on board on higher target by ’20

MADRID: The ongoing UN climate change conference (COP25) did not appear to gain much in terms of raised ambition of countries to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 as only 73 countries, representing just nearly 13% of total global emissions, have so far agreed to formally commit to higher mitigation targets by next year.


Except European Union (EU) as a collective entity under UNFCCC, and few of its member nations such as France, Germany, Belgium and Spain, most others in the list of 73 are small developing and island nations whose emissions are negligible as compared to big emitters like the USA, China and India.


All these countries expressed their intention to achieve 'net-zero' carbon emission by 2050. The list also includes Nepal, Pakistan and Maldives. The poor show is, however, mainly due to withdrawal of the US from the Paris deal and unwillingness of India and China to join the Climate Ambition Alliance at this juncture. The three countries together accounted for 50% of global emissions in 2018.

India has, already, made it clear that the country has been on track to meet its Paris Agreement targets and it would consider any new ambition only when the stocktake of the current targets under the deal happens in 2023.

Though more and more non-state actors, mainly businesses, are joining the 'net-zero' carbon emission brigade, it won't be enough to put the world within the 1.5 degree Celsius temperate rise pathway. The Climate Ambition Alliance was launched at the Climate Action Summit in New York in September where UN secretary-general, António Guterres had appealed to all 197 countries to scale up their climate action targets - known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - by next year.

The other key issue - making rules for carbon market (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement) - too did not seem to make much progress as the matter of carrying over the accumulated carbon credits of Kyoto Protocol (pre-2020) period to the Paris Agreement (post-2020) phase has not yet been resolved and there are indications that it will eventually be pushed to next year.

Spanish minister for the ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, however, on Thursday expressed hope in getting results, saying the countries would be able to fix all the pending issues on this before the end of this COP.

"I think most countries understand the importance of carbon markets in facilitating greater emission reductions and in being a positive driver for higher ambition (of climate actions). But there are three or four issues where countries have a difference of opinion," said Ribera while addressing a press conference on the progress made so far on various issues - be it ambition or carbon market.

Articulating India’s stand, the country’s lead negotiator at COP25, Ravi Shankar Prasad, on Thursday said the participants have been hearing a lot on ‘ambition’ here but not seen the same kind of zeal as far as ‘implementation’ is concerned.

He said that the ambition here meant implementation of Paris Agreement and what was promised. He was making intervention at a progress meeting, chaired by the COP president Carolina Schmidt.

Prasad also reminded the gathering on developed countries’ track record on Kyoto Protocol promises. His intervention came in response to certain concerns expressed by some least developed and small island nations on India’s stand of not raising its ambition.