Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)

The Paris Agreement signed by 196 parties, requires each of the parties to communicate and maintain successive “Nationally determined contributions (NDCs)” that it intends to achieve. In a way, NDCs are a key part of achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Key Points

• NDCs represent the efforts of each country to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
• India has submitted its NDC for pre-2020 in the year 2015.
• India’s NDC of 2015 has eight goals comprising of 3 quantitative goals namely- creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by the year 2030; reducing the emissions intensity of GDP by 33-35% from the level in 2005 and achieving 40% power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based resources by 2030.

High-Level Committee to oversee Paris Climate Goals of India

Union Environment Ministry has constituted a high-level inter-ministerial Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement (AIPA).

It will function under the chairmanship of Secretary, MoEFCC to ensure that India is progressing towards meeting its commitments under the Paris Agreement including its nationally determined contributions.

Officials from 14 ministries will be a member of AIPA.  In addition to this, AIPA will also work as a national authority for regulating carbon markets in the country.

Paris Agreement

It is an agreement that was signed for dealing with climate change, gas emissions, finance, etc. The agreement was signed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in the year 2016. At present, all the 196 members of UNFCCC have signed the Paris agreement.

The Paris Agreement has a goal of keeping the average global temperature below 2 degrees Celcius.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

It is an international treaty on Climate change signed in the year 1992. As of 2020, UNFCCC has 197 signatory members.