LIMA: Amid hope to seal the climate deal in Paris next year, crucial negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) kicked off in the Peruvian capital on Monday with the key UN body appealing the world to step up their actions to deal with disastrous consequences of global warming.
How much burden each of the nations would share to save the world may be known only later in the run-up to the Paris meeting, the current meetings — called COP20 (20th edition of the Conference of the Parties) — would, hopefully, throw lights on countries' priorities and willingness to move on low-carbon development path.
"Science offers clear rationale for climate action," said UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman R K Pachauri in his opening remark while sharing details of the recent scientific findings that predicted disastrous consequences of global warming for the world if the countries do not act fast to reduce their carbon emissions.
Appealing the world for immediate action, Pachauri said more the nations delay their adaptation and mitigation (cutting emission) measures, the cost of actions to deal with challenges of climate change would be more.
Environment ministers and other key representatives of over 190 countries are expected to join the conference for the high-level segment of the negotiation next week. Indian environment and climate change minister Prakash Javadekar is scheduled to leave Delhi for this important COP on December 5.
Since the present COP is happening in the backdrop of the recent bilateral climate deal between the US and China, it has drawn lot of attention among nations whose representatives may also try to figure out how effectively the two countries - the biggest historical emitter (US) and the world's top present polluter (China) - adhere to their promised goal and what course of actions they would take to reach their self-goals.
Though the goals set out by both US and China are not that ambitious if one look at the proportion of emissions by these two countries, the resonance of the bilateral deal is all pervasive here.
Under the bilateral deal that was signed in Beijing last month, the US will reduce emissions by 26-28% below the 2005 levels by 2025. China, on its part, intends to achieve the peaking of carbon emissions around 2030 and make best efforts to peak early and intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20% by 2030.
Whatever be their targets, the attention is now on India due to that deal.
