About G20

• Founded in 1999, the Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for its members’ international economic cooperation and decision-making.
• The G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, UK and USA. 

• The G-20’s member-countries represent around 85% of the world’s economic output, three-quarters of international trade and two thirds of the world’s population.
• The objectives of the G20 are:
  • Policy coordination between its members in order to achieve global economic stability, sustainable growth;
  • To promote financial regulations that reduce risks and prevent future financial crises; and
  • To create a new international financial architecture.

Why in News?

• Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav participated in the G20 Climate summit and stressed that the G20 must respond to the call of science for urgent global climate action in this decade. 
• He mentioned the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – installing 450 GigaWatt of Renewable Energy by 2030, enhanced ambition in bio-fuels, India’s Nationally Determined Contributions and various other initiatives on Urban Climate Action. 
• Mr Yadav stressed that common but differentiated responsibilities to combat climate change as per respective capabilities and national circumstances, lies at the heart of the Paris Agreement. He said there should not be any shifting of goalposts and setting new benchmarks for global climate ambition.

Related Information

Paris Climate Deal

• The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It comes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 
• The agreement was negotiated and adopted by 196 parties in Paris during the UNFCCC’s 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in 2015. It came into effect in 2016. 
• The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• A key feature of the Paris Agreement has been the way the agreement reflects the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ (CBDR). This principle acknowledges the different capabilities and differing responsibilities of individual countries in addressing climate change.
• Under the Paris Agreement, developed countries are under obligation to mobilise at least $100 billion every year from the year 2020 in climate finance meant for the developing world. This amount has to be revised upwards after five years. 
• The Paris Agreement requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. This includes requirements that all Parties report regularly on their emissions and on their implementation efforts.
• The Paris Agreement places great emphasis on climate-related capacity-building for developing countries and requests all developed countries to enhance support for capacity-building actions in developing countries.
• With the Agreement, countries established an enhanced transparency framework (ETF). Under the ETF, countries will report transparently on actions taken and progress in climate change mitigation, adaptation measures and support provided or received. It also provides for international procedures for the review of the submitted reports. The information gathered through the ETF will feed into the Global stocktake which will assess the collective progress towards the long-term climate goals.
• As of December 2020, all 197 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement and 189 countries remain party to it. 
• India, too, is a party to the agreement, having ratified it in April, 2016.

India’s NDCs for Paris agreement 

• To reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels.
• To achieve about 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030, with the help of transfer of technology and low-cost international finance, including from the Green Climate Fund.
• To create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

Reference:

1. https://newsonair.gov.in/News?title=G20-must-respond-to-call-for-urgent-global-climate-action%3a-Environment-Minister-Bhupender-Yadav&id=422599