Important facts for Net Zero Emissions targets for 2050
Vizcards for net Zero Emission
Net Zero Emissions by Vizmins Official
Why is net zero emissions in News?
- In its bid to reclaim the global climate leadership, the US is widely expected to commit itself to a net-zero emission target for 2050 at the upcoming virtual Climate Leaders’ Summit convened by US President Joe Biden.
- Other countries on Net zero emissions
- Several other countries, including the UK and France, have already enacted laws promising to achieve a net-zero emission scenario by the middle of the century.
- China has also promised to go net-zero by 2060.
- The European Union is working a similar Europe-wide law.
- Countries including Canada, South Korea, Japan, and Germany have expressed their intention to commit themselves to a net-zero future.
- A very active campaign has been going on for the last two years to get every country to sign on to a net-zero goal for 2050.
- It is being argued that global carbon neutrality by 2050 is the only way to achieve the Paris Agreement target of keeping the planet’s temperature from rising beyond 2°C compared to pre-industrial times.
What is net zero emissions?
- Net-zero, which is also referred to as carbon-neutrality.
- It does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero.
- Rather, net-zero is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by absorption and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
- The net-zero formulation does not assign any emission reduction targets to any country.
How to achieve net zero emissions?
- The absorption of the emissions can be increased by creating more carbon sinks.
- Carbon sinks, such as forests, while removal of gases from the atmosphere requires futuristic technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
Relationship between net zero emissions and Paris Agreement
- The net-zero goal does not figure in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the new global architecture to fight climate change.
- The Paris Agreement only requires every signatory to take the best climate action it can.
- Countries need to set five- or ten-year climate targets for themselves, and demonstrably show they have achieved them.
- The other requirement is that targets for every subsequent time frame should be more ambitious than the previous one.
What is India's stand on net zero emissions?
- India, the world’s third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, after the US and China.
- It is the only major player holding out.
- India is the only one opposing this target because it is likely to be the most impacted by it.
- Reasons of India
- Over the next two to three decades, India’s emissions are likely to grow at the fastest pace in the world, as it presses for higher growth to pull hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
- No amount of afforestation or reforestation would be able to compensate for the increased emissions.
- Most of the carbon removal technologies right now are either unreliable or very expensive.
Tag:Environment, UPSC
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