India launches 'Climate Equity Monitor' on first day of COP26

The 'Climate Equity Monitor' is aimed at monitoring the performance of Annex-I Parties under the UNFCCC (comprising developed countries) based on the foundational principles of the Climate Convention, namely equity and the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC). The performance and policies of the Non Annex-I Parties (developing countries) will be also provided for comparison, a release from the Environment, Forests and Climate Change Ministry said.

The performance here is the respective countries actions to cut down on carbon emissions as part of the climate actions that will collectively help restrict global temperature rise.

Welcoming the going live of the website (https://climateequitymonitor.in) on global climate policy, India's Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister, Bhupender Yadav, tweeted: "Climate Equity Monitor that focuses on equity and climate action from a data and evidence-based perspective will encourage a vigorous discussion on this crucial issue and engage experts from all countries."

He also congratulated the team that worked on this project, the release said.

The website has been conceptualised and developed by independent researchers from India -- the Climate Change Group at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Department at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) Bengaluru, with other independent researchers.

The MSSRF team was led by Senior Fellow, Climate Change, Professor T. Jayaraman, and the NIAS team by Associate Professor, Dr Tejal Kanitkar.

In keeping with the latest scientific results of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that have underlined the importance of cumulative emissions and carbon budgets, the analysis will be anchored in these two concepts.

The equitable sharing of the global carbon budget is the fundamental equity principle that will underpin the assessments that will progressively appear on the website. Existing "tracking" websites on climate policies are based in the global North and routinely do not address the crucial aspects of equity and differentiation. Other websites, according to the researchers, bury the key issues in complexities that are not transparently dealt with.

"The developers of this dashboard have taken this initiative to build awareness, especially among the public of the global South, that climate action is a global collective action problem. The website is intended to debunk the narrative provided by many developed countries, and global non-government organizations that focus attention continually on what developing countries must do, constantly demanding greater commitment and action from them," the release added.

The website is expected to be a valuable tool for policy makers, public institutions, researchers, academics, students, and the general public from developing countries to keep equity and climate justice considerations clearly in view in their perspective. The website will also undergo constant upgradation with additional new material, including the addition of new areas such as climate finance, technology transfer and adaptation.