Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious global warming initiative, International Solar Alliance (ISA), aimed at sharply curtailing the world’s carbon footprint, received a triumphal boost with French President Francois Hollande joining hands with India to mobilise $1trillion worth of investment to develop solar power worldwide, by 2030, with focus on tropical countries that are sun-rich but cash-poor. Around 121 developing countries between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn that are resource-rich but energy poor, along with the United States, China, Australia and Brazil are expected to join this move towards a low carbon future.
Coming at the plenary session (Nov 30) of the two-week Climate Change Conference at Paris (COP 21), the development has dramatically altered perceptions that the summit could end in stalemate (or failure) after Washington began quibbling over Common But Differential Responsibility (CBDR) and Climate Change Fund days before the summit. The move follows India setting itself the target of 175 GW of solar energy by 2022 and shifting 40% of its cumulative installed capacity to non-fossil fuel electricity generating systems by 2030.
The end goal of Paris is to achieve a global architecture to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-Industrial Revolution levels, or the catastrophic effects of global warming – droughts, floods, rising sea levels that will wipe out low-lying island nations – will be inevitable. After Rio 1992, Kyoto 1997 and Copenhagen 2009 failed to make headway in mitigating climate change, the UN began to place more reliance on the efforts of individual governments to reach agreements, rather than an overarching UN agreement. In the run-up to Paris, 183 nations submitted voluntary action plans to tackle global warming. But the pledges submitted still cause 2.7-3.3C warming, well above the target.
The International Solar Alliance has made a new global deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a possibility. The development of affordable solar technologies and attracting the investment needed for a gigantic solar shift has now become part of the Paris negotiations.
Explaining the idea behind the initiative, Mr Modi said that billions at the bottom of the development ladder (300 million of India’s 1.25 billion have no access to energy) need space to grow. Urging advanced nations to adopt ambitious emission cuts so that developing countries can grow in the little carbon space still available, he pleaded for including ratification of 2nd Commitment period of Kyoto Protocol and enhancing the Green Climate Fund to improve access to technology and intellectual property.
President Hollande observed, “Countries who have the most sun represent only a small part of the global production of solar power,” and said energy inequality could be reduced by technology and financing. He said initial public financing is important to establish solar energy in developing countries.
The ISA members will pledge to make innovative and concerted efforts to reduce the cost of solar financing and solar technology, and push for new solar projects around the world on a massive scale. A ticklish issue in the negotiations is India’s insistence that signatories reaffirm a pledge of $100bn a year from rich countries to poorer ones from 2020, to help with emissions reduction and climate change adaptation. This is a UN-mandated pledge that rich countries want to scuttle. However, the G-20 countries including the US, China, and India, pledged to double their existing combined $10bn of spending on clean energy research over the next five years.
A major achievement at Paris was that the Heads of Government of major forest countries and partner countries endorsed forests as a key climate solution and pledged to slow down, halt and reverse deforestation and massively increase forest restoration. This will include restoration of degraded forest, peat and agricultural lands, and promoting low carbon rural development. Experts believe forests could provide almost one-third of the climate solution needed over the next two decades.
Despite this, nearly 12 million hectares of forest are destroyed annually. At Paris, Mr Modi pledged that India would increase its forest cover to absorb at least 2.5 billion tonnes worth of carbon dioxide. Brazil has reduced Amazon deforestation over 70% in the past decade, and will continue to partner Norway in this regard until 2020. Colombia has pledged to focus on reducing deforestation in the Amazon region, while Germany, Norway and Britain undertook to provide $5 billion from 2015 to 2020 if countries pursue ambitious REDD+ programs (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), and to significantly increase pay-for-performance finance if countries show verified emission reductions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed his country had surpassed the Kyoto Protocol by reducing 1990 emission levels while almost doubling GDP, thus proving that the economy can be developed while preserving the environment. In the next stage, Russia will reduce emissions to 70% of 1990 levels, possibly the most ambitious target by a developed country. He supported the stand of developing nations that their development will be hindered if the burden of emission restrictions is placed on them in the form of fines. Admitting that Russia’s forest cover has declined, he said the forest fires in northern Russia are the result of climate change, which is also behind melting Arctic glaciers and hurricanes of a magnitude mankind has never seen before.
The ultimate success of COP 21 requires global greenhouse gas emissions to reach zero after 2050. Thus, even if Paris clinches a climate deal on December 11, the main lacuna will be the inability to bring unequal distribution of carbon emissions on the agenda. As 2015 is possibly the warmest year on record and the world has already reached 1 degree Celsius temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution, we are close to the safe limit of global warming, despite 25 years of UN-led climate talks. The warning bells toll louder than ever.
ABPLive.in 3 December 2015
http://www.abplive.in/blog/modi-struck-right-chords-indias-solar-initiative-gets-huge-endorsement