Rome (Italy) | Jagran News Desk: In a bid to control the climate crisis, the G-20 leaders on Sunday agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels. In a statement, the G-20 leaders committed their support for the Paris agreement to keep "the global average temperature increase well below 2 degrees and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels".
The G-20 leaders, whose countries emit nearly 80 per cent carbon emissions, said that "keeping 1.5 degrees within reach will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries, taking into account different approaches", through the development of national plans that "align long-term ambition with short- and medium-term goals".
What does keeping the global warming limit to 1.5 degrees Celsius means?
To keep the global warming limit to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels was first decided in Paris in 2015. As per experts and researchers, global temperature rise must be kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid "serious consequences". However, they have said that this will not be easy and it will require a "strong political moment".
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They have warned that if the temperature goes beyond the 1.5 degrees Celsius mark, then it would have "serious consequences". However, they argue that it can be brought below the limit using new technologies, but that too might have "considerable risks".
"Some things may come back but some things are irreversible, in terms of taking a risk you'd want to try and keep below 1.5, and clearly that means faster, deeper earlier emissions cuts, and it probably means carbon dioxide removal. But these technologies - some of them we know what to do, but some are early days and need to be assessed," BBC quoted Dr Stephen Cornelius from WWF as saying.
Are researchers satisfied with the G-20 over its commitment to keep the global warming limit to 1.5 degrees Celsius?
Researchers have said that keeping the global warming limit to 1.5 degrees Celsius would not be easy and it would mean cutting global emissions nearly in half by 2030 and to "net-zero" by 2050. They have also said that the G-20 leaders have set no firm date to achieve the target and spoke only of reaching the goal of net-zero "by or around mid-century".
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace slammed the final statement as "weak, lacking both ambition and vision", saying G20 leaders "failed to meet the moment". "If the G20 was a dress rehearsal for COP26, then world leaders fluffed their lines," said Executive Director Jennifer Morgan, as reported by AFP.
What is India's stand on it?
India on Sunday argued that if the 1.5 target has to be achieved, then rich and developed countries, who have "enjoyed the fruits of energy", need to go for net zero emissions faster to allow poorer and emerging nations a larger carbon allowance and more time to develop.
"First of all what we have decided is global net zero. So all the countries put together will be net-zero which means the developed countries, which have already enjoyed the fruits of low-cost energy for several years have to go in for net-zero much faster and if possible going for net-negative so that they can release policy space and some carbon space for the developing countries to pursue their developing agenda," said Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who is India's Sherpa at G-20, on Sunday.
"Second, in terms of the year, we still have to work on technological solutions... there are no available adequate technologies to be able to absorb large amounts of clean energy into the grids and maintain grid stability, therefore, we will have to look at more technology and innovation playing an important before we can identify a year," he added.