Junior Digest

Nov 18,2022:United States regulators approved a plan Thursday to demolish four dams on a California river and open up hundreds of miles of salmon habitat in what will be the largest dam removal and river restoration project in the world when it goes forward.

The unanimous vote by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on the lower Klamath River dams is the last major regulatory hurdle and the biggest milestone for a $500m demolition proposal championed by Native American tribes and environmentalists for years. The project would return the lower half of California’s second-largest river to a free-flowing state for the first time in more than a century.
Native tribes that rely on the Klamath River and its salmon for their way of life have been a driving force behind bringing the dams down in a wild and remote area that spans the California and Oregon border. Barring any unforeseen complications, Oregon, California and the entity formed to oversee the project will accept the licence transfer and could begin dam removal as early as this summer, proponents said.

“The Klamath salmon are coming home,” Yurok Chairman Joseph James said after the vote. “The people have earned this victory and with it, we carry on our sacred duty to the fish that have sustained our people since the beginning of time.”

The dams produce less than 2 percent of PacifiCorp’s power generation — enough to power about 70,000 homes — when they are running at full capacity, said Bob Gravely, spokesperson for the utility. But they often run at a far lower capacity because of low water in the river and other issues, and the agreement that paved the way for Thursday’s vote was ultimately a business decision, he said.

PacifiCorp would have had to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in fish ladders, fish screens and other conservation upgrades under environmental regulations that were not in place when the ageing dams were first built. But with the deal approved Thursday, the utility’s cost is capped at $200m, with another $250m from a California voter-approved water bond.
“We’re closing coal plants and building wind farms and it all just has to add up in the end. It’s not a one-to-one,” said Gravely of the coming dam demolition. “You can make up that power by the way you operate the rest of your facilities or having energy efficiency savings so your customers are using less.”

June 16,2022:Australia, under a new Labor government, on Thursday raised its 2030 target for cutting carbon emissions, bringing the country more in line with other developed economies’ Paris climate accord commitments, APA reports citing Reuters.

Australia, one of the world’s highest per capita carbon emitters, pledged to the United Nations that it would cut carbon emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030, up from the previous conservative government’s target of between 26% and 28%.
“When I’ve spoken with international leaders in the last few weeks, they have all welcomed Australia’s changed position,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after notifying the U.N.

Under the former government, Australia, the world’s top exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas, had long been seen as a laggard in climate commitments, with no clear energy and climate policy to encourage renewable energy investments.

At the UN climate summit in Glasgow last year, former prime minister Scott Morrison was criticised for failing to set a more ambitious emissions-cutting target while the United States, Canada, EU, Britain and Japan all sharply stepped up their pledges.

Canada is aiming for a reduction of 40% by 2030 from 2005 levels, while the United States has a target of up to 52%.

“For years, the Australian government told the world that was all too hard,” Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen told reporters at a televised media conference in Canberra.

“We send the message to the rest of the world, to our friends and allies, that we’re partners in tackling the climate emergency. We send the message to Australians that we seek to end the climate wars, as the Prime Minister said,” Bowen added.

The push to slash emissions more rapidly comes as the country is facing a major power crisis caused by planned and unplanned coal-fired generator outages, which have driven up demand for gas-fired generation just as global gas prices have skyrocketed.

Bowen said the crisis highlighted the need to speed up, not slow down, work on the regulations needed to encourage more investment in renewable energy.

Aug 29,2022:Russian forces have pounded Ukrainian towns across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, officials said, while reports of shelling around the facility fuelled fears of a radiation disaster.

Captured by Russian troops in March but run by Ukrainian staff, Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has been a major hotspot in the six-month conflict with both sides trading blame for recent shelling near the plant.

Russian forces fired at Enerhodar, the city where the plant is located, the chief of staff of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said late on Sunday on his Telegram channel alongside a video of fire fighters dousing burning cars.
Russian forces also kept up their shelling in the Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the east, officials there said.

WELLINGTON, June 8,2022: New Zealand on Wednesday released a draft plan to put a price on agricultural emissions in a bid to tackle one of the country’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases, belching sheep and cattle.

The proposal would make New Zealand, a large agricultural exporter, the first country to have farmers pay for emissions from livestock, the Ministry for Environment said.

New Zealand, home to 5 million people, has about 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep.
Nearly half its total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane, but agricultural emissions have previously been exempted from the country’s emissions trading scheme, drawing criticism of the government’s commitment to stop global warming.

Under the draft plan, put together by government and farm community representatives, farmers will have to pay for their gas emissions from 2025. Short-and long-lived farm gas will be priced separately, although a single measure to calculate their volume will be used.
“There is no question that we need to cut the amount of methane we are putting into the atmosphere, and an effective emissions pricing system for agriculture will play a key part in how we achieve that,” Climate Change Minister James Shaw said.

The proposal includes incentives for farmers who reduce emissions through feed additives, while on-farm forestry can be used to offset emissions. Revenue from the scheme will be invested in research, development and advisory services for farmers.
“Our recommendations enable sustainable food and fibre production for future generations while playing a fair part in meeting our country’s climate commitments,” said Michael Ahie, chair of the primary sector partnership, He Waka Eke Noa.

The proposal would potentially be the biggest regulatory disruption to farming since the removal of agricultural subsidies in the 1980s, said Susan Kilsby, agricultural economist at ANZ Bank.

A final decision on the scheme is expected in December.

SHANGHAI ,Mar 22,2022: Not a single country managed to meet the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) air quality standard in 2021, a survey of pollution data in 6,475 cities showed on Tuesday (March 22), and smog even rebounded in some regions after a Covid-19-related dip.

The WHO recommends that average annual readings of small and hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5 should be no more than 5 micrograms per cubic metre after changing its guidelines last year, saying that even low concentrations caused significant health risks.

But only 3.4 per cent of the surveyed cities met the standard in 2021, according to data complied by IQAir, a Swiss pollution technology company that monitors air quality.
As many as 93 cities saw PM2.5 levels at 10 times the recommended level.

“There are a lot of countries that are making big strides in reduction,” said Ms Christi Schroeder, air quality science manager with IQAir.

“China started with some very big numbers and they are continuing to decrease over time. But there are also places in the world where it is getting significantly worse.”

India’s overall pollution levels worsened in 2021 and New Delhi remained the world’s most polluted capital, the data showed.

Bangladesh was the most polluted country, also unchanged from the previous year, while Chad ranked second after the African country’s data was included for the first time.

China, which has been waging war on pollution since 2014, fell to 22nd in the PM2.5 rankings in 2021, down from 14th place a year earlier, with average readings improving slightly over the year to 32.6 micrograms, IQAir said.

Hotan in the north-western region of Xinjiang was China’s worst performing city, with average PM2.5 readings of more than 100 micrograms, largely caused by sandstorms.

It fell to third on the list of the world’s most polluted cities after being overtaken by Bhiwadi and Ghaziabad, both in India.

Nov 14,2022:One week into this year’s U.N. climate summit in Egypt, frustrations were starting to flare as negotiators worried about resolving myriad details in time for a deal by the summit’s scheduled close on Friday.
With a long list of demands for COP27, country delegates said on Sunday there had been little progress so far on the technical details of how to deliver on deals and pledges made in previous years.

Those pledges include making steep cuts in climate-warming emissions within this decade and contributing to hundreds of billions of dollars needed each year by developing nations already struggling to cope with the impacts of climate change.

One frustrated senior negotiator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the slow pace so far meant the second week of talks, being held in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, would be bogged down with too many unresolved agenda items.

That could also complicate the talks among government ministers on the so-called cover decisions – which make up the core political deal from the two-week summit.
COP27 featured no public events on Sunday, dubbed by organizers as a “day of rest,” during which thousands of attendees hit the local beaches and tourist shops.

National negotiators, however, continued their work.

“There’s just a lot to get done in five days,” said Tom Evans, a policy analyst for the E3G non-profit think tank.

“We haven’t seen huge solidarity between the developed and developing countries” but instead “disappointing commitments and action this year, which has dented trust.”

‘LOSS AND DAMAGE’

This year’s talks for the first time include the thorny issue of what is known in COP parlance as “loss and damage” – financial support for developing countries already being hit by climate-fueled disasters, such as floods or crop-withering drought.
For some countries, the outcome on funding will determine whether the summit has been a success.

“A lot needs to be done to ensure that the finance commitment is going to be new, additional, and accessible,” Rwanda negotiator Ineza Umuhoza Grace said.

Developing nations have demanded that COP27 agree to launch a special fund to address loss and damage. The United States and other rich nations are wary of this idea, saying these rapid funds are better channeled through existing programs.
“Developing countries continue to push for the set up of a finance facility for loss and damage to make it fully operational by 2024,” said one negotiator from Latin America, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.

WELLINGTON,Oct 27,2022: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visited scientists at New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica on Thursday, as part of a trip aimed at highlighting climate change challenges, her country’s commitment to the continent and the need for regional cooperation.
Having arrived on Wednesday at the start of her 72-hour trip, Ardern said in a recording sent overnight that New Zealand’s presence in Antarctica was at a “critical juncture” as the base comes to the end of its life.

“The role that we play, and our scientists play here, is incredibly important for our present and our future,” she said during a visit marking Scott Base’s 65th anniversary.

Last year, New Zealand announced it was allocating NZ$344 million($200.72 million) for a rebuild of the base, to support New Zealand’s presence there for the next 50 years.

Sheopur (Madhya Pradesh) , September 17,2022: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday released eight cheetahs into Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park.

PM Modi released two cheetahs from enclosure number one and after that about 70 meters away, from the second enclosure released another cheetah.
The cheetahs were declared extinct from India in 1952 but today 8 cheetahs (5 females and 3 males) were brought from Africa’s Namibia as part of ‘Project Cheetah’ and the government’s efforts to revitalise and diversify the country’s wildlife and habitat.
The eight cheetahs were brought in a cargo aircraft in Gwalior as part of an inter-continental cheetah translocation project. Later, the Indian Air Force choppers carried the cheetahs to Kuno National Park from Gwalior Air Force Station.
Radio collars have been installed in all the cheetahs to be monitored through satellite. Apart from this, there is a dedicated monitoring team behind each cheetah who will be monitoring their location for 24 hours.
Cheetahs have been brought under an MoU signed earlier this year.
Cheetahs will help in the restoration of open forest and grassland ecosystems in India and will help conserve biodiversity and enhance the ecosystem services like water security, carbon sequestration and soil moisture conservation.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23,2022:Countries on the front lines of the climate crisis are fed up.

During the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations this week, low-lying island nation Vanuatu stepped up a fight to get the world to focus on combating global warming by calling for a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty.

“The time is up – action is required now,” Vanuatu’s President Nikenike Vurobaravu told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday.
The treaty would aim to scale down coal, oil and gas production to limit the rise in temperatures to the globally agreed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

It would also “enable a global just transition for every worker, community and nation with fossil fuel dependence,” said the leader of the carbon-negative country.

A U.N. climate science panel – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – has warned that global emissions are on track to blow past the 1.5 degrees C warming limit and reach some 3.2 degrees C by the end of century.

Vanuatu has also asked the International Court of Justice to issue an opinion on the right to be protected from the adverse impacts of climate change, a move that Vurobaravu said “is not a silver bullet for increasing climate action, but only one tool to get us closer to the end goal of a safe planet for humanity.”

In Pakistan, devastating floods this month engulfed large swaths of the country, killing more than 1,500 people and causing damage estimated at $30 billion. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked world leaders why his people were paying the price of global warming.
“Pakistan has never seen a more stark and devastating example of the impact of global warming. Life in Pakistan has changed forever,” Sharif told the General Assembly. “Nature has unleashed her fury on Pakistan, without looking … at our carbon footprint.”

‘CLIMATE CHANGE MONSTER’
Around the world on Friday young activists rallied for climate action, staging protests from New Zealand and Japan to Germany and the streets of New York to demand rich countries pay for global warming damage to the poor.

The protests take place six weeks before this year’s U.N. climate summit, known as COP27, where vulnerable countries plan to push for compensation for climate-related destruction to homes, infrastructure and livelihoods.

“We renew our call to the world to declare total war on this century’s greatest challenge: the climate change monster. And yet, after all these years, the world has failed to break our addiction to fossil fuels,” Marshall Islands President David Kabua told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the least responsible for climate change are suffering the most.

“The Philippines is a net carbon sink, absorbing more carbon dioxide than we emit. And yet, we are the fourth most vulnerable country to climate change,” he told the U.N. gathering.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres on Friday warned that the world is “not even close” to making enough progress on climate change, telling a meeting of Pacific Island leaders: “Those who did nothing to create this crisis are paying the highest price.”

Guterres has also urged rich countries to tax windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and to use that money to help countries harmed by the climate crisis and people who are struggling with rising food and energy prices. read more

The United States and China are the world’s biggest carbon emitters. On the fight against global warming, U.S. President Joe Biden warned at the United Nations this week: “We don’t have much time.”

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama condemned the climate war as being fought with “apathy, denial, and a lack of courage to do what we all know what must be done.”

He appealed for the world to step up.

“Fiji is ready to make the coming years count for our people and for the planet – our question to you is this: Are you with us? Don’t tell us yes unless you plan to show it.”

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 20,2022: This year’s U.N. climate summit featured visits by world leaders, proposals by business leaders, and negotiations by nearly 200 nations about the future of global action on climate change.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the two-week COP27 summit held in Egypt.
FUND FOR “CLIMATE JUSTICE”
After years of resistance from rich governments, nations for the first time agreed to set up a fund to provide payouts to developing countries that suffer “loss and damage” from climate-driven storms, floods, droughts and wildfires.
Despite being the standout success of the talks, it will likely take several years to hammer out the details over how the fund will be run, including how the money will be dispersed and which countries are likely to be eligible.

FOSSIL FUEL FLOW
The final COP27 deal drew criticism from some quarters for not doing more to rein in climate-damaging emissions, both by setting more ambitious national targets and by scaling back use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.

Latest Updates
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While the deal text called for efforts to phase down use of unabated coal power and phase-out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, some countries had pushed to phase out, or at least phase down, all fossil fuels.

But from the opening speeches to the gaveling of the final deal, the use of fossil fuels was affirmed for the near future.

President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates – host of next year’s COP28 climate summit – said his country would continue to deliver oil and gas “for as long as the world is in need”.
Oil company CEOs were on hand at this year’s summit, after having been pushed to the margins at COP26. Natural gas chiefs were billing themselves as climate champions, despite gas companies having faced lawsuits in the United States over such claims.

Nevertheless, some electricity-poor nations in Africa argued for their right to develop their natural gas reserves, even as they face increasing climate impacts such as drought.

And fossil fuel phase-out clubs launched around last year’s summit in Glasgow were struggling to recruit new members amid this year’s energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war.

“BRAZIL IS BACK”
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was greeted by roaring crowds as he declared “Brazil is back” in the global climate fight, and vowed to host COP30 in 2025 in the Amazon region.

The leftist leader made the Egypt climate summit his first visit abroad since winning Brazil’s presidential election last month against right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over mounting destruction of the rainforest and refused to hold the 2019 climate summit originally planned for Brazil.

On Monday, Brazil also joined Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo in launching a partnership to cooperate on forest preservation. The trilateral alliance was negotiated over a decade of on-off talks that continued even as the countries’ national forest policies and leaderships changed. They are expected to press rich nations to pay for forest preservation.

U.S., CHINA RELATIONSHIP REKINDLED
A critical precursor for the climate talks’ success happened far away from the Red Sea locale.

As the COP entered its second week, China’s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden met in Indonesia for the G20 where the heads of the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters agreed to restart cooperation on climate change after a months-long hiatus due to tensions over Taiwan.

China’s top climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua had previously told reporters that informal dialogue with John Kerry, his U.S counterpart and a “close friend for 25 years”, had continued.

Xie said on Nov. 19 that he expects to keep up direct cooperation on climate change with Kerry after the end of COP27 – and presumably after Kerry recovers from COVID.

BILLIONS IN PRIVATE FINANCE (BUT NOT TRILLIONS… YET)
The world of finance has failed to provide enough money to help countries cut their carbon emissions and adapt their economies to the changes wrought by global warming, yet the COP27 talks suggest change is coming.

Among the steps likely to free up more cash is a plan to reform leading public lenders such as the World Bank so that they can take more risk and lend more money. By doing so, countries hope more private investors will join in.

Deals struck at the talks also give hope for faster action, chief among them a landmark deal between countries such as the United States and Japan, and private investors to help Indonesia shift away from coal-fired power generation more quickly.

April 23,2022: Twitter says it will no longer allow advertisers on its site who deny the scientific consensus on climate change, echoing a policy already in place at Google.

“Ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis,” the company said in a statement outlining its new policy on Friday.
There was no indication that the change would affect what users post on the social media site, which along with Facebook has been targeted by groups seeking to promote misleading claims about climate change.

The announcement coinciding with Earth Day came hours before the European Union agreed a deal requiring big tech companies to vet their sites more closely for hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content.

Twitter said it would provide more information in the coming months on how it plans to provide “reliable, authoritative context to the climate conversations” its users engage in, including from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The U.N.-backed science panel’s reports on the causes and effects of climate change provide the basis for international negotiations to curb climate change.

The company already has a dedicate climate topic on its site and offered what it described as “pre-bunks” during last year’s U.N. climate conference to counter misinformation surrounding the issue.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 8,2022: Leaders from poor countries criticized wealthy governments and oil companies for driving global warming, using their speeches on Tuesday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt to demand that they pay up for damages being inflicting on their economies.

Small island states already buffeted by increasingly violent ocean storms and sea-level rise called on oil companies to shell out some of their huge recent profits, while developing African states called for more international funds for adaptation.
“The oil and gas industry continues to earn almost 3 billion United States dollars daily in profits,” said Gaston Browne, Antigua’s prime minister, speaking at the conference on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States.
“It is about time that these companies are made to pay a global carbon tax on their profits as a source of funding for loss and damage,” he said. “While they are profiting, the planet is burning.”
Nikenike Vurobaravu, the president of the island nation of Vanuatu, said it wanted the International Court of Justice to help ensure future generations’ rights were not being violated by nations lagging on climate change.

The comments reflected the tension in international climate negotiations between rich and poor states, as delegates attended the second full day of the two-week U.N. conference in the seaside resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Wealthy western countries tend to be the most vocal advocates of slashing emissions, but are also the ones that have contributed the most greenhouse gases after more than a century of fossil fuel-driven industrialization.

Multi-billion-dollar oil industry profits since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February – which has roiled markets and disrupted supplies – have also angered governments worldwide concerned about climate change and rampant consumer inflation.

U.S. President Joe Biden this month said the industry was raking in “war profits” and proposed a windfall tax, an idea that has little chance of passing a divided Congress.

But some countries at the conference were more likely to direct their frustration at rich governments, not drillers.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall told the conference poor developing countries in Africa needed increased funding from wealthy nations for adaptation to worsening climate change, and would resist calls for an immediate shift away from fossil fuels African countries need to fuel their economies.

“Let’s be clear, we are in favor of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. But we Africans cannot accept that our vital interests be ignored,” he said.

Chandrikapersad Santokhi, president of Suriname – a South American nation whose forests absorb more carbon than its people emit – said wealthy countries needed to uphold a promise to direct $100 billion a year to developing countries for climate adaptation.

“On behalf of all children and the next generation we urgently call on historic emitters to do their part to safeguard our world. My country is doing our part with the limited resources and capacity,” he said.

The hosts of the COP27 climate talks on Tuesday launched a global plan to help the world’s poorest communities withstand the impacts of global warming, including targets for sustainable farming, mangrove restoration to reduce coastal flooding, and access to clean cookstoves.

The head of the World Trade Organization, meanwhile, told Reuters she aimed to revive negotiations on a global environmental trade deal as part of efforts to give the trade watchdog a bigger role in tackling climate change.

BILLIONS FOR WAR
Sri Lanka’s president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said governments were quick to divert billions of dollars to the war in Ukraine, but slow to spend serious money on climate change.

“Double standards are unacceptable,” he said.

Scores of other heads of state and government spoke on Monday and Tuesday but many of the world’s biggest polluters – including the United States, China and India – have yet to hit the podium.

Biden will not arrive until Friday – after Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States – but his delegation opened its pavilion at the COP27 venue on Tuesday and Special Envoy John Kerry was making the rounds.

Aug 30,2022:The United Nations has appealed for $160m to help Pakistan following “epochal” rains and flooding that have killed more than 1,100 people, affected 33 million others, and destroyed homes, businesses, infrastructure and crops.

Torrential rain has triggered flash floods that have crashed down from northern mountains, wrecking buildings and bridges and washing away roads and crops.

Colossal volumes of water are pouring into the Indus river, which flows down the middle of Pakistan from its northern peaks to southern plains, bringing flooding along its length.

“Pakistan is awash in suffering,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday in a video message to launch the appeal in Islamabad and Geneva.

“The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids – the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding,” Guterres said.

Colossal volumes of water are pouring into the Indus river, which flows down the middle of Pakistan from its northern peaks to southern plains, bringing flooding along its length.

“Pakistan is awash in suffering,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday in a video message to launch the appeal in Islamabad and Geneva.

Pakistan estimates the floods have affected more than 33 million people, or more than 15 percent of its 220 million population.

The UN chief said the scale of the country’s needs required the world’s collective and prioritised attention.

Guterres also said Pakistan’s flooding was a signal to the world to step up action against climate change.

Sept 06,2022:Companies in the Group of Seven (G7) economies are failing to meet Paris Climate Agreement objectives, non-profit disclosure platform CDP and global management consultancy Oliver Wyman said on Tuesday, based on current corporate pledges to cut emissions.
Under the global 2015 Paris deal, countries agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (°C) and aim to keep the rise below 1.5°C, which scientists say would avert some of its worst effects.
Across the G7, which consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, corporate emissions targets are overall on a 2.7°C warming trajectory, CDP and Oliver Wyman analysis showed.

Collective emissions of U.S. and Canadian firms are seen matching the pace of decarbonisation required to restrict global warming to 2.8°C and 3.1°C, respectively, with the study stating that it is “largely the result of companies completely lacking targets, rather than targets that lack ambition.”

Mar 10,2022: Speaking at the United Nations Security Council Arria Formula Meeting, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, R Ravindra said: “We will always speak up for the interest of the developing world, including Africa, the Sahel region, and Small Island Developing States. And we will do so at the place it deserves — the UNFCCC.”
He said that India is second to none when it comes to climate action.
“Our Prime Minister made ambitious commitments in Glasgow CoP over and above the commitments made earlier. India is probably the only G20 country on course to meet its 2030 Paris targets. The UN-led UNFCCC, which has near-universal membership, has been the main driver over the years to take all of us collectively forward, guided by principles and provisions agreed to by all,” the Deputy Permanent Representative said.
“It represents a balanced global democratic effort where there are a concrete commitment from developed countries as well as genuine requirement on developing countries,” he said.
“We will resist any attempt to take climate change out of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and discuss it separately without these principles and provisions,” he said.
India further said that developed countries have fallen short of their promises not just on mitigation but also on providing access to climate finance and technologies.
Affordable access to climate finance and technologies is critical to move forward on climate action. “Developed countries must provide climate finance of 1 trillion dollars at the earliest,” he said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate Report released last week states that the “climate finance for adaptation is sufficient and constrains the implementations of adaptation; and that globally tracked climate finance is targeted at mitigation and only a small proportion towards adaptation.”
“We recognized that fact that climate change may have exacerbated conflicts in a certain part of Africa and Sahel. But viewing conflicts only through the prism of climate change is misleading. Oversimplification of causes of conflict will not help in resolving them,” Ravindra said.

Nov 15,2022:The world’s three largest rainforest nations Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia on Monday formally launched a partnership to cooperate on forest preservation after a decade of on-off talks on a trilateral alliance.
The rapid destruction of rainforests, which through their dense vegetation serve as carbon sinks, releases planet-warming carbon dioxide, imperiling global climate targets. Regrowing previously deforested jungle has the benefit of removing greenhouse gas already in the atmosphere.

Representatives of the three countries, which represent 52% of the world’s tropical rainforest, signed the joint statement at the talks in Indonesia ahead of the G20, or Group of 20 industrialised nations, which begins on Tuesday.

“South-to-south cooperation – Brazil, Indonesia, DRC – is very natural,” the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Environment Minister Eve Bazaiba said prior to the signing.

“We have the same challenges, the same opportunity to be the solution to climate change.”

In the agreement, the alliance said that countries should be paid for reducing deforestation and maintaining forests as carbon sinks.

The countries will also work to negotiate “a new sustainable funding mechanism” to help developing countries preserve their biodiversity, as well as to increase funding through the United Nations’ REDD+ program for reducing deforestation.

The G20 talks coincide with the second and final week of the COP27 United Nations climate summit in Egypt, where Lula’s environmental adviser Izabella Teixeira said Brazil would seek to get the involvement of other countries in the Amazon basin, which spans nine nations.
“Forests matters, nature matters. And I do believe that without Amazon protection, we cannot have climate security,” said Teixeira, who was environment minister under Lula during his previous term as president that ended in 2010.

“I believe that Brazil should promote that other countries should come together.”
Talks on the alliance to protect rainforest until now had foundered due to “institutional difficulties,” Teixeira said.

The joint statement cited a meeting of the three countries at last year’s climate summit in Glasgow that injected momentum into the talks.

They have reached fruition in the final weeks of the right-wing presidency of Jair Bolsonaro before Lula takes office Jan. 1.

Reuters reported in August that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, elected as Brazil’s president at the end of October, would seek a partnership with the two other leading rainforest nations to pressure the rich world to finance forest conservation.

Oct 20,2022:Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched ‘Mission LiFE’ (Lifestyle for Environment) at the Statue of Unity in Gujarat’s Ekta Nagar.
At the launch of ‘Mission LiFE’ in Kevadia, PM Modi said, “The issue of climate change is being witnessed everywhere. Our glaciers are melting, rivers are drying up. Mission LIFE will help in fighting the climate crisis,” PM Modi said.
“A perception was created that climate change is merely a policy-related issue & that both governments or international institutions will take steps regarding it. But now, people are feeling the effects of climate change,” he said.

PM Modi said that a bit of changing lifestyles can be of help to the environment.

“Some people prefer dropping AC temperatures to 17 degrees, this creates a negative impact on the environment. Use cycles while going to gyms, doing our bit to change our lifestyles can be of help to the environment,” he said.

PM Modi also highlighted that reuse, reduce and recycling are part of India’s traditions and culture. “We need to bring back these practices and work towards making sustainable choices,” he said.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the global launch of ‘Mission Life’, said G20 combined as resources, they have the power to end the war against nature and set us on course towards sustainable living.
“G20 countries account for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions but it also represents 80% of global GDP. G20 combined as resources, they have the power to end the war against nature and set us on course towards sustainable living,” the UN chief said.

The UN chief said that India can play a critical bridging role in building trust between developing and developed nations.

“COP27 represents a key political opportunity to rebuild trust & accelerate action across all pillars of the Paris Agreement. With its vulnerability to climate impact & its massive economy, India can play a critical bridging role in building trust between developing and developed nations,” he said.

He further said, “Individuals and communities can and must be a part of the solution of protecting our planet and our collective future.”

The UN chief said that the developed countries must follow through on their commitments to provide meaningful financial and technological support to countries throughout this transition.

“Developed countries must follow through on their commitments to provide meaningful financial & technological support to countries like India throughout this transition. We need to unleash a renewables revolution & look forward to working with India on this,” the UN chief added.