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In this article, Manisha Jain and Dr Kriti Akansha highlight that it is necessary to support long-term thinking, transformation, flexibility and innovation while taking the associated climate risks into consideration to attain climate resilience. There is a need for a robust framework that ensures climate policies are integrated into all sectors and that planning, implementation, and evaluation are strictly followed.
How Big Should These Be?
When we talk and act on climate action and the energy transition in emerging economies, the discussion can range from topics such as climate mitigation, adaptation, energy transition, financing, and business model innovation to next-generation technologies.
COP27 took place in November 2022 in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh. The Conference concluded with a historic decision to establish and operationalize a loss and damage fund. Dr Anil Pratap Singh takes us through the highlights of this important climate conference and concludes that at COP27, unrelenting deliberations took place on setting the needs and priorities of the Parties; thereby resolute implementation plans for the future were developed during the deliberations.
The first high-level meeting of the India-EU Track II dialogue on Finance Working Group jointly curated by TERI, Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) along with the European Climate Foundation (ECF) took place successfully on December 16th, 2021. The meeting was attended by over 10 experts representing leading think tanks, industry and academia from India and the EU, who have been instrumental in driving climate action in both regions.
Due to the increase in anthropogenic activities, global temperatures have shown a warming trend of approximately 1°C (likely between 0.8°C and 1.2°C) above pre-industrial levels. Annual surface air temperatures over India also have shown increasing trends of similar magnitude during the period 1901–2014. The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in 2021 has predicted heat waves and heat stress to be more intense and frequent during the 21st century in South Asian region including India.
The twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UNFCCC, that is, The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference has sent a clear message to global corporates and executives—to direct their investments in innovative projects and new technologies, reassess their business models and carbon footprint in order to make a rapid and necessary transition to sustainability and guarantee a cleaner, safer, and healthier planet.
The Glasgow Climate Pact has been reached after much struggle. It is a mixed bag of partial successes and missed opportunities.
Two areas where COP26 completed its work with a reasonable degree of efficiency are related to finalising the carbon market mechanisms under Article 6, and completing the residual transparency arrangements under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement.
Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Director General, commends India’s ambitious and bold stand on climate action and equity
Considering the urgency of actions needed to address climate change, it is encouraging to see India announcing ambitious 2030 targets along with initiatives such as the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) and Green Grids Initiative— One Sun One World One Grid (GGI-OSOWOG).
While there is a growing narrative by countries to include adaptation within their long-term strategies (LTS), however such narratives have not translated into a very high-level of integration with concrete 'formulation' and 'communication'.