Why in News: –

New Delhi has to leverage its green commitment to ensure carbon and policy space for its developmental aspirations.

Syllabus: – 

GS-2: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian Diaspora.
GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment. / Disaster and disaster management.

• Joe Biden as U.S. President has catapulted climate change to the top of the global agenda, allowing him to keep his promise to “lead a major diplomatic push” to increase global climate ambition.
• The USA President Joe Biden in his first address to the annual Munich Security Conference declared that the ‘transatlantic alliance is back’ and stressed the need to defend democracy around the world.
• This works well for him in rebuilding the trans-Atlantic alliance apart from keeping at bay the domestic fissures from a tenuous hold of the Democrats in the U.S.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization:

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of 4th April, 1949, by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.
• NATO provides a unique transatlantic link for political and security cooperation and NATO is a political and military alliance whose primary goals are the collective defence of its members and the maintenance of a democratic peace in the North Atlantic area.

The Trans-Atlantic alliance:

• Transatlantic crossings are passages of passengers and cargo across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe or Africa and the Americas. 
• The majority of passenger traffic is across the North Atlantic between Western Europe and North America.
• A Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) is a proposal to create a free-trade agreement covering Europe and North America, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
• Since 2013 an agreement between the United States and the European Union (EU) has been under negotiation: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

The U.S.’s moves:

• The U.S. is not just striding back to the Obama signature achievement of the Paris Accord with its voluntary commitments but also to the Bush days.
• The Major Economies Forum (MEF), which was first convened in March 2009, originated in the Bush-era U.S. efforts to rope in major emitters.
• It was also to push a way forward on climate change without heed to the principle of differentiated responsibilities and recognition of historical responsibilities, which are rightly hallowed principles of the climate discourse given the decades of staying power of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere.
• The serious unwillingness of emerging economies to be labelled “major emitters” saw the meeting retitled “Major Economies Meeting” given the clear link between GDP and GHG.
• While the meeting’s purport was not hidden, the retitling provided a feel-great and one from which retraction was not possible for the emerging economies.

Stern message, border levies:

• This time the push appears to have come to shove, with all countries being told to commit to net zero (GHG emissions) by 2050with credible plans to ensure meeting this domestic target.
• Indeed, the Chinese, who posited themselves as reaching there by 2060, have been sternly told to be there a decade earlier.
• Taking a cue from the new U.S. Administration, the UN Secretary-General has even called on countries to declare national climate emergencies apart from building a coalition for a carbon-neutral world by 2050.
• As of today, countries representing around 65% of global CO2emissions have already agreed to this. The UN Secretary-General would like this figure to reach 90% within

The plans and their implementation:

1. These plans and their implementation will, undoubtedly, be subject to international reviews and verification.
2. Historical responsibilities and differentiation, obviously, have no place in this discourse; but neither does the level of development.
3. Adding to the challenges of this proposed global goal is the distinct possibility of the EU imposing carbon border levies on those who do not take on high carbon cut-down targets and do so unilaterally if there is no global agreement.
4. The new U.S. Administration appears ambivalent on these border levies, the possibility of their coming around cannot be ruled out. In such a scenario, World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that presently exclude the use of tariffs on environmental grounds will certainly get modified.

A fund pay-in idea:

• The issue of money, especially the lack of it, is a perennial one in the climate discourse, and those above the global average would pay, while those below would receive the monies.
• In this context, Raghuram Rajan has recently put forward a proposal for India to consider it calls on countries to pay into a global fund amounts based on their carbon emissions over and above the global per-capita average of five tons.
• While this would suggest certain equity, it may be unacceptable to the developed countries even though Mr. Rajan has gone along with the drumbeat to forget historical responsibility.

India’s concerned:

• As far as India is concerned, for starters such a proposal may appear attractive as India today has per capita CO2 emission of only 2 tons and is a global record setter in pushing renewable.
• But will real Indian politics allow a major economy to benefit from such fund flows or indeed even be the recipient of any form of concessional climate finance.
• The long-term implications of such a proposal in a setting of a sharply growing economy and reliance on coal-produced electricity for several decades require examination in detail,
• The apart from factoring in the twists and turns that negotiations could give to such an idea. And then, of course, there are alternatives such as emission trading.
• The proposal focuses on current and future emissions, and in keeping with the contract and converge approach, it double penalizes developing country while giving developed countries a certain free pass.
• Here it bears noting that more than 75% of the carbon space available to humankind to keep global temperature rises to 1.5° C has already been taken up by the developed world and China.

How World build a carbon-neutral world by 2050 (Suggestion):

• No Country will be able to ignore the social and economic pressures as climate impacts become more severe – but the longer it takes, the more expensive it will become. Governments, states, cities, businesses and investors know this.
• The Paris Agreement provides an international framework for countries to set clear goals and increase their ambition, over time, to reach a net-zero carbon worlds.
• The Carbon Neutral Coalition– comprising 26 countries, 15 cities, 17 regions and states, and 192 companies – is spearheading ambitious efforts to implement policies and incentives that will support the process
• The Under2Coalition of 205 jurisdictions– representing 43 countries and six continents – is developing deep decarburization plans for 2050. And 412 companies have committed to set ‘science-based targets’ to achieve the same aim.

Way Forward:

• India, with its huge population and now one of the world’s largest economies, can easily be in the crosshairs of such a discourse no matter its extraordinarily small carbon footprint in per-capita terms and huge development imperatives.
• India to carefully calibrate its approach including on the economic and political fronts.
• The Climate negotiations are not just about the environment and human well-being or even energy, but are also about global governance, and will henceforth be pursued with a vigor which requires.

Question: –

Climate justice is an imperative for India, which needs to leverage its green and pro-nature commitment to ensure carbon and policy space for its developmental and global aspirations. Critically evaluate.