On December 1, 2020, Union Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Forest Minister (MoEFCC), Prakash Javadekar represented India at the 2020 Industry Transition Leadership Summit organized by Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT). The Summit was held in Virtual Mode due to Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Meeting was held ahead of the 5th Anniversary of the signing of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Participants:
i.The event was attended by heads of Global Companies such as Scania, FLSmidth, LKAB, LafargeHolcim, SSAB, Vattenfall. Indian Companies like Dalmia, Mahindra Group also participated in the event.
ii.Global Think Tanks and Ministers/Representatives of the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, European Union and Germany also attended the event.
Objective:
i.The summit focuses on aligning public and private action for implementation of the agendas and targets under the Paris Agreement.
ii.To tackle the climate crisis, create decent and green jobs, ensure gender equality, maintain competitiveness and deliver prosperity and sustainable development for all.
Key Points from Javadekar’s Address:
i.Industries contribute directly around 30 % of Global CO2 emissions.
ii.He emphasized on mobilizing funds at a larger scale & use of technology to deal with climate change.
iii.Developed Countries should share affordable technologies and research studies with developing countries in order to work in the direction of saving the environment.
Coordinating structure for Paris Agreement:
i.India is also working on establishing a new coordinating structure for implementation of the Paris Agreement.
ii.The structure will also include issues like Internal Carbon Pricing, Sustainable Lifestyle, Cross-Border Carbon Leakage.
Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Isabelle Levin’s Address:
i.Isabelle Levin stated that India and Sweden need to work together to deal with climate change.
ii.She reiterated India’s view that Best practices and experiences should need to be shared to cut down carbon emissions and argued for mobilizing finances to deal with carbon emissions.
Commitments made in the Summit:
i.To Create stable and reliable markets for green industrial products, and identifying targeted interventions to enable the transition of whole value chains.
ii.To enhance Charging infrastructure to support energy efficiency in transport and electrification of heavy good transport
iii.To Collaborate with new and existing platforms such as Mission Innovation, multilateral development banks and the Multilateral Climate Investment
iv.Funds to increase access to and application of emerging technologies.
v.To Share know-how between countries and companies, and reach out to developing economies to facilitate industry transition.
vi.It called on WTO (World Trade Organization) Ministerial Conference 12 to seize the opportunity to facilitate trade through the reduction or appropriate elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers on environmental goods and services to achieve industry transition and tackle climate change.
India’s NDCs Targets:
India has 3 Quantitative Climate Change Goals. They are:
- Reduction in emissions intensity of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 33-35 % by 2030 from 2005 level.
- Achieving 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030.
- Creating Additional Carbon Sink of 2.5 to 3 Billion Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.
Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT):
It was launched by India, Sweden during the United Nations Secretary General Climate Action Summit in 2019 as a commitment towards low carbon industry transition.
LeadIT is supported by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Stockholm Environment Institute, Energy Transitions Commission, Mission Innovation, Stockholm Environment Institute and European Climate Foundation.
Recent Related News:
i.On 27th October 2020, Global Himalayan Expedition(GHE) of India, won the 2020 United Nations(UN) Global Climate Action Awards under Financing for Climate Friendly Investment for its efforts to combat climate change amid COVID-19 pandemic.
ii.November 6, 2020, The India CEO Forum on Climate Change was held virtually on November 5 which was chaired by Union Minister Prakash Keshav Javadekar,MoEF&CC.
About Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT):
The Members of the group are 13 Countries and 15 Companies
Member Countries – India, Sweden, Argentina, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea, United Kingdom & Northern Ireland, Australia & Denmark.
Member Companies – Dalmia Cement, Mahindra Group, DSM, Heathrow Airport, LKAB, Royal Schiphol Group, Scania, SpiceJet, SSAB, ThyssenKrupp, Vattenfall, CarbFix, FLSmidth, Hybrit, LafargeHolcim & Volvo
