Energy transition is the way towards reducing emissions, but is it India’s responsibility

1. Energy transition is the way towards reducing emissions, but is it India’s responsibility? These are just some of the alarming extreme weather events in this year alone that have made it to the headlines. As you read this, Pakistan is reeling from unprecedented rain and flooding that has devastated the country. And we can be sure to expect more such weather events around the world that tells us that climate change is very real and is taking place at a rate not seen in the past 10,000 years. The current warming up of the planet is seen as result of human activities and the emission of greenhouse gases since the mid-1800s. CO2 is the greatest contributor to the increasing global warming and has risen by 48% when compared to pre-industrial levels. Methane is the second largest contributor and its concentration in the atmosphere has also more than doubled since preindustrial times. The obvious solution to climate change at this point is to immediately reduce energy related emissions, and transition to alternative sources of energy. Activities which include burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas increases the emission of carbon pollution,

2. resulting in climate change. The process of replacing fossil fuels with low carbon and renewable energy sources, called energy transition, should be the topmost priority in gearing up for climate resilience and sustainable development. The question, however, that remains is whose responsibility is it to do so and who is the burden falling on? Decades of global commitments It was only in 1972 that the world started taking the environment and the effects we were having on it seriously with the United Nations Scientific Conference on the Human Environment, more popularly known as the Stockholm Conference. In 1987, climate change and its potentially devastating consequences first made it to the global agenda. With the goal of stabilizing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere ‘at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human induced) interference with the climate system’, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was introduced in 1992 and as of today has been ratified by 197 countries. In the time since, there have been many conferences held and agreements and protocols that have been proposed and signed. Key amongst these are the Kyoto Protocol , Paris Agreement and the annual Conference of Parties (COP) that was started to monitor and review the implementations of UNFCCC a and where countries meet annually to discuss goals and objectives related to climate change. Energy Transition Is the Way Towards Reducing Emissions