India urges G20 nations to bring down per capita emissions to global average by 2030

In the two-day environment ministerial meet at the 16th G20 Summit held in Naples, Italy, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, who led the Indian delegation, said, "We have noted the pledges made by some countries to achieve Net Zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for carbon neutrality by or around mid-century. However, this may not be adequate in view of fast depleting available carbon space." "Therefore, and keeping in view the legitimate need of developing countries to grow, we urge G20 countries to commit to bringing down per capita emissions to global average by 2030," the minister asked the G20 nations.

In a joint G20 Energy-Climate Ministerial Communiqué, the G20 nations acknowledged the importance of a science-based approach in policymaking.

"We acknowledge that the COVID-19 crisis has reaffirmed the importance of a science-based approach in policymaking. We emphasise the serious warning coming from the global scientific community, that this must be the decade of action to address the urgent challenges of climate change and its linkages with biodiversity loss and human health.

"We thus resolve to work together to ensure that our collective international commitments, as well as national actions, remain informed by the best available science," the nations said.

The countries also said they recall and reaffirm the commitment made by developed countries, to the goal of mobilising jointly USD 100 billion per year by 2020 and annually through 2025 to address the needs of developing countries, in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation, and those funds may come from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral, and multilateral, including alternative sources.

"In this regard, we welcome the new commitments made by some of the members of the G20 to each increase and improve their overall international public climate finance contributions through to 2025 and look forward to new commitments from others well ahead of COP26," the communique said.

The countries also said that, "We also recall the Paris Agreement aim to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty, and that one of its goals is to make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low GHG emissions and climate-resilient development." The G20 nations called on all Development Finance Institutions, in particular Multilateral Development Banks, to follow up with their commitments in line with their mandates, including those taken at the Finance in Common Summit, to mobilise increased climate finance and step up their efforts to pursue alignment of their portfolio of activities and investments with the Paris Agreement within ambitious timeframes.

They sought that the same be communicated before the United Nations Climate Conference COP26, scheduled to be held later this year in Glasgow, UK, with a view to supporting developing countries in line with their climate and development priorities while continuing to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals.

The countries said that they aim to foster ambitious adaptation, resilience, and mitigation actions in urban and peri-urban landscapes, including through committing to the deployment and implementation of nature-based solutions or ecosystem-based approaches in and around cities, and through the sharing of best practices and increased international cooperation while harnessing the multiple benefits for people, climate and nature and ensuring social and environmental safeguards.

"We will strive to scale up nature-based solutions or ecosystem-based approaches in and around cities as appropriate including through COVID-19 recovery plans, with the view to build forward better for the conservation, sustainable use and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services, while addressing the social and economic challenges of urban areas and significantly reducing negative environmental impacts such as air and water pollution," the nations said.

As a part of the Paris Agreement, India plans to reduce its carbon footprint by 33-35 per cent from its 2005 levels by 2030 and have 40 per cent of its total installed power generation capacity from renewables by 2030.