Under Paris Agreement, India was to create an additional ‘carbon sink’ of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest, tree cover by 2030.
India’s Biennial Update indicates the opposite:
68,215 gigatonnes in 2014 vs 200,036 in 2010
Between 2015 and 2019, India's environment ministry gave permission to cut a further 1,09,75,844 trees for 'development' work.
This number excludes trees lost due to forest fires.
The National Action Plan on Climate Change is not just grossly underfunded, its turned negative:
Budget allocation of ₹47.80 crore for FY 2017-18 was less than the amount needed to even finance the committed liability generated in previous years.
The trend of shrinking carbon sinks will accelerate with trees under threat from urban, highway, river linking, mining, metro, rail development projects.
Reducing tree cover in India is not just a global issue, its local impacts are immediate & severe.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh