CSR_Module5_Green Earth Initiative, Tree Planting Day
ย
Climate Change meet in Poland
1. High stakes for India as โmake or breakโ climate meet begins in Poland
India will be at the forefront of negotiations as a leading developing country
to push for climate action when talks begin on Dec. 3, 2018, Monday in
Polandโs Katowice at COP 24, which multiple climate scientists are calling
a โmake or breakโ moment for the world.
This is because an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
report in October titled โGlobal Warming of 1.5 Degreesโ warned that the
Earth will face devastating consequences of climate change if the world
fails to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial
levels.
The report also said that commitments to cutting down carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions, submitted by 195 nations under the Paris Agreement of
2015, which is to become operational as the Paris Accord in 2020, will fail
to keep global temperatures in check.
Due to human activity since the pre-industrial level, the world has already
warmed by 1 degree Celsius.
Discussions at the Katowice conference of parties (COP 24) to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are also
crucial because the US โ the worldโs second most polluting nation after
China โ has threatened to pull out of the Paris Agreement, and that would
mean the rest of the stakeholders will have to strive to meet climate goals
on their own in the future. In the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires last week,
the US reiterated its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, and
2. affirmed its commitment to economic growth and energy access and
security.
India is one of the worst-affected by climate change because of its large
population and a high share of poverty.
This is why Indian climate scientists are pushing for the drafting of rules for
the implementation of the Paris Agreement in this COP. The Union ministry
of earth sciences recently said that the Kerala floods were a result of
climate change and that similar extreme weather events can happen again
in India.