Climate: The Global Commons

In the run-up to the Conference of the Parties (COP26), amidst the mounting pressure on developing countries to curb emissions, there is a deafening silence on the historical cumulative global emissions that heated the earth by 1.1% above the pre-industrial levels. Failure to arrest emissions will raise the temperature of the planet; immediate action is needed in the absence of which the rise in sea levels and unpredictable weather changes accompanied by cyclones and storms may make a huge part of the planet uninhabitable. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) like carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane, and nitrous oxides (NOx) contribute to global warming but each has a different harming potential. CO₂ stays in the atmosphere for the longest, whereas methane heats the planet 80 times more than CO₂ in the first 20 years of its release, although it is subject to weathering; it exits the atmosphere after some years.

Although India is the third largest emitter of CO₂—2.65 gigatonnes (Gt)—its per capita share is just 1.96 tonnes, 21st in the descending order of magnitude. Contrarily, the historical emissions place India as a fairly low emitter. India’s lead in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 1992, by introducing Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC), paved the way for the principle of equity and climate justice. In COP26, India’s promise on five points deserve accolade: to power 50% of our energy needs from renewable sources; increasing the renewable installed capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 from the present 100 GW; reducing the total emission to 1 billion tonnes from its projected emissions from now till 2030; reducing the carbon intensity of the economy by 45% by 2030; and pledging net zero by 2070. India represents 17% of the global population, but its historical cumulative emissions are only 4% of the global emissions (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change).