india

Updated: Sep 20, 2019 11:28 IST

Most developed nations and some developing countries, numbering 14, responsible for 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions, have declined to revise their nationally determined contribution (NDCs) to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement target of keeping global mean temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.

Days ahead of the crucial UN Climate Action Summit in New York, a report by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), titled The Heat is On: Taking Stock of Global Climate Action, said that most developing nations, including the most vulnerable small island nations, have said they will enhance their ambition to meet the Paris target.

The report underlines that developed countries are not rising to the challenge and are set to risk breaching the 2 degree global warming target, a dangerous threshold, according to the scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

At least 112 nations accounting for 53% of the global emissions have expressed the intention to update their NDCs. “However, this includes many of the developing countries that are the most vulnerable to, but least responsible for, climate change,” said a statement by UNDP on Wednesday. One hundred and eighty four out of 197 parties to the Paris Agreement have submitted their first set of NDCs so far.

Within this group of 112 nations, 75 countries representing 37% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions “are leading the way with intentions to enhance their ambition in their next NDCs –either by curbing emissions, or including measures to make societies more resilient to the worsening impacts of climate change, or both.

In fact, two countries have already complied with the deadline--the Marshall Islands and Ecuador, the report said. The report doesn’t name the countries which have declined to update NDCs but has cited examples of countries that are taking a leadership role like Marshall Islands, Ethiopia which has an NDC compatible with the 2 degree target, Chile which is phasing out coal, and Morocco, which is aligned to a 1.5 degree rise in temperature.

More industrialized nations, meanwhile, are among the 53 countries currently working on long-term strategies (LTS), which they intend to submit by the end of 2020, that describe the phasing out of GHGs from their economies by the second half of the century, the report said. Europe’s Green Deal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 will be outlined in the coming months, for example.

The Marshall Islands, comprising 29 low-lying coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean, was the first nation to issue a new NDC last year aimed at reducing vulnerability to storms and sea level rise while cutting the use of fossil fuels. “The government says the nation accounts for a miniscule 0.00001 percent of global emissions but wants to show leadership since it is so exposed to storms, “king tides” and rising sea levels,” the report said.

India, in a finance ministry discussion paper released on Tuesday, stated that it doesn’t intend to immediately enhance its NDC, which is already aligned to the 2 degree target.

Meanwhile, an analysis by Carboncopy, a communications group, said that since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, 35 Indian companies including Tata group, Mahindra and Mahindra, Dalmia Cement and Ambuja Cement had committed to reducing emissions through science-based targets, pushing India to the 5th position after the United States (121), Japan (80), United Kingdom (73), and France (46). These companies have a net worth of $87 billion.

(HT is participating in Covering Climate Now, a global journalism initiative committed to bringing more and better coverage to the defining story of our time).