Fair, country-specific adaptation metrics top agenda for COP30: India

New Delhi, Nov 3 (PTI) The rationalisation of adaptation indicators will be a major issue at the upcoming UN climate conference (COP30) in Brazil’s Belem, the environment ministry said on Monday, stressing that these indicators must not disadvantage developing countries and should reflect national circumstances.

The ministry said that the framework should also enable transparent tracking of finance, technology transfer and capacity building support from developed nations.

Climate adaptation means preparing communities for rising temperatures, floods, droughts and storms, for example, by building sea walls, restoring forests or planting resilient crops.

But global progress on adaptation has been slow, limited and fragmented. To change this, countries created the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) under the Paris Agreement to track and strengthen adaptation efforts.

Although agreed upon in 2015, the goal only took shape at the 2023 UN climate summit (COP28) in Dubai, UAE, where nations set a broad framework for action.

However, it still lacks clear targets and adequate support in finance, technology and capacity building.

At COP30 in 2025, countries must refine the GGA by agreeing on measurable indicators so that the world can fairly track progress and scale up protection for vulnerable communities.

The ministry also said the climate conference in Brazil will be crucial for the future of multilateralism.

COP30 is taking place against a complex geopolitical backdrop, with the United States withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and several developed countries reassessing their climate strategies amid economic and energy security pressures.

At the Pre-COP30 Ministerial Roundtable in Brasília last month, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said the 30th UN climate summit in November must send a strong signal that multilateralism remains the cornerstone of global climate action.

Ministry officials also said that consultations are going on India's new nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

NDCs are climate action plans that every country makes under the Paris Agreement. These plans set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and outline how each country will adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Together, these national plans determine whether the world can meet the goal of keeping temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius this century.

The world has already heated up by 1.3 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era (1850-1900), largely due to burning fossil fuels.

Countries are required to submit their third round of NDCs, referred to as "NDCs 3.0" for the 2031-2035 period this year.

Officials have said that India could submit its updated NDCs ahead or at this year's UN climate conference scheduled to take place in Belem, Brazil, from November 10 to 21.

In its updated NDC submitted in August 2022, India committed to three main quantified mitigation targets for the year 2030.

These are reducing greenhouse gas emissions-intensity of GDP by 45 per cent (relative to 2005); achieving around 50 per cent cumulative installed electric-power capacity from non-fossil-fuel based energy resources; and creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030 through additional forest and tree cover.

India met its non-fossil fuel power capacity goal in July this year, five years ahead of schedule.

According to its fourth Biennial Update Report (BUR-4) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on December 30 last year, the emission intensity of India's GDP reduced by 36 per cent between 2005 and 2020.

The report added that India created an additional carbon sink of 2.29 billion tonnes during 2005 to 2021.

India's previous NDCs did not cover all sectors and greenhouse gases.

The updated NDC was largely economy-wide but focused mainly on the energy sector, particularly on improving energy efficiency, expanding renewable energy and reducing the emissions intensity of GDP.

It did not set separate or absolute emission targets for individual sectors like agriculture, industry, transport or waste management.

In terms of gases, the NDC mainly targeted carbon dioxide emissions, which dominate India's total greenhouse gas output, but it did not explicitly quantify reduction targets for other gases such as methane and nitrous oxide.

The UNFCCC has been strongly encouraging countries to make their next NDCs (for 2025-2035) economy-wide, covering all sectors and all greenhouse gases. PTI GVS GVS OZ OZ