GLOBAL
RENEWABLES AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY PLEDGE - ENVIRONMENT
News:
India, China yet to sign
pledge on renewable energy capacity
What's
in the news?
●
There was a flurry of big announcements at
the UN Climate Conference (COP28) in
Dubai, including a pledge to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030
and a decarbonisation charter for the oil and gas industry.
●
But in terms of negotiations on sticky
issues, there remained major differences among developed and developing
countries on the delivery of the long promised $100 billion in climate finance
and on the shape and messaging of the Global Stocktake.
Global
Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge:
●
According to the “Global Renewables and
Energy Efficiency Pledge”, countries have to “double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency
improvements from around 2% to over 4% every year until 2030”.
Objectives:
●
The pledge committed to tripling worldwide
installed renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 gigawatts (GW) and to double the global average
annual rate of energy efficiency improvements to more than 4% by 2030.
Features:
●
The pledge is neither legally binding nor
a part of the official COP28 calendar.
Signed
by:
●
118
countries - The pledge was spearheaded by the EU, the US and
the UAE and supported by Brazil, Nigeria, Australia, Japan, Canada, Chile and
Barbados.
●
India
and China have not signed the pledge.
Reason
for India not signing the pledge:
●
The pledge states that renewables
deployment must be accompanied by phase down of unabated coal power.
●
This is contrary to India’s longstanding
position that it needs to rely on coal to rapidly improve living standards for
its people.
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India also claims that it has the right to
use coal because its historical carbon emissions per person have been
negligible.