Context

The Climate Ambition Summit (CAS) has been conducted at the United Nations General Assembly which China, United States and India failed to participate.

About the Summit:

• Participants: Representatives from 34 states and 7 institutions were participated on the summit.
  • Countries including Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan were among the listed speakers and emerging economies such as South Africa and Brazil were also on the list.
  • The European Union, Germany, France and Canada were also participated.
• The criteria for countries to be considered for a speaking slot at the summit were:
  • They would be expected to present updated pre-2030 Nationally Determined Contributions (as agreed in Glasgow);
  • Updated net-zero targets;
  • Energy transition plans with commitments to no new coal, oil and gas;
  • Fossil fuel phase-out plans;
  • More ambitious renewable energy targets;
  • Green Climate Fund pledges; and economy-wide plans on adaptation and resilience.
• All the “main emitters” and notably all G-20 governments would be asked to commit to presenting, by 2025, more ambitious economy-wide Nationally Determined Contributions featuring absolute emissions cuts and covering all gases.

India’s commitments:

• India last updated its climate pledges in 2022 of reducing emissions intensity — or the volume of emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) — by 45% from 2005 levels by 2030, a 10% increase from what it agreed to in 2015.
• The government committed to meet 50% of its electric power needs from renewable, non-fossil fuel energy sources — up from 40% committed at the Paris agreement.
• It assured to create an additional carbon sink of 5 to 3bn tonnes of CO2-equivalent [GtCO2e] through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.