India leads G20 countries in climate change mitigation, US, Canada trail far behind: Report
A study published by Observer Research Foundation has shared a report on climate change mitigation among the Group of 20 countries, wherein it was shown that India and Italy lead the race, followed by Indonesia and United Kingdom.
Recently, while inaugurating India Energy Week (IEW) 2023 in Bengaluru, Prime minister Narendra Modi mentioned how India’s energy demand has significantly increased and will reach 11 per cent of the global demand as compared to 5 per cent currently.
“The G20 economies account for the largest share of global wealth and therefore possess the financial wherewithal to spearhead the green transition required to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius” the ORF Report states.
According to the analysis, the India scored a 0.76 in Climate Action Performance Index, which measures the climate change action taken up by any country , wherein 1 is the maximum score.
India and Italy were termed leaders according to this analysis, followed by Indonesia and United Kingdom, then Turkey, France and Germany.
The report cited these factors that helped India to score the highest
-Significantly low per capita contributions to carbon and GHG emissions
-Very limited share in legacy emissions relative to its population needs
-Least rate of per capita energy use
-Significant efforts towards, not only preserving, but also expanding its climate-regulating land cover by 6% compared its 1992 levels.
India during its ongoing G20 presidency has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle Joint Business Council to further promote the adoption of energy efficiency and sustainable practices in the region, the Asian Lite reported.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia with a score of 0.29 was ranked last according to the analysis. The Saudi Arabia was grouped as ‘Incipient’ along with Russia (0.42), United States (0.37), and Canada (0.34).
“Canada and the United States—score significantly low across most indicators of climate performance, indicating that there are significant gaps that need to be filled in their mitigation efforts.” the report stated.
“While performing relatively better than other G20 members in climate action, the leading countries do not achieve a perfect score of 1 on the Climate Performance Index. This shows that all G20 members have certain strengths that should be leveraged and weaknesses that need to be addressed while envisioning a broader strategy of national climate action—catering to specific climate goals and targets.” the report added.