Despite being highly vulnerable to #ClimateChange and featuring among the top five emitters of greenhouse gases, India is unlikely to commit to net-zero emissions at the upcoming #COP26.
Being a developing country, India is highly dependent on fossil fuels to run a substantial portion of its economy. The havoc created by the recent shortages in coal stands testimony to this.
Achieving net-zero would mean significant cuts in the use of fossil fuels.
India is unlikely to follow the much-advocated net-zero plan, but would rather dwell on improvising goals for the transition towards green energy.
Simply put, India is not against the idea of net-zero, but rebuts the timeline of 2050 to achieve this ambitious goal.
India believes in ‘common but differentiated responsibility’ principle, as per which the developed countries must take the first steps to reduce their emissions. They should also compensate the poorer countries by paying for the environmental damage due to their past emissions.
Even with all the measures put in place, it may not be possible for India to achieve net-zero by mid-century. The Council for Energy Environment and Water estimates that India may reach net-zero only by 2070 by scaling solar power capacity to over 5600 GW.
Though India is not trying to meet this landmark deadline, it has laid out several strategies to limit its carbon emissions. Recently, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav highlighted the plans to strengthen climate initiatives and green partnerships
📸: K Sharma/BCCL
India is also likely to update its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) with enhanced commitments under clean-energy and reduced emissions from specific sectors. The country is expected to make big announcements on its renewable energy pledges to achieve 450 GW by 2030.
India's maiden initiative, the Green Grids Initiative-One Sun One World One Grid, is set for launch at #COP26.
It will interconnect global renewable energy systems from one part of the world to another to reduce dependence on fossil fuels & ramp up clean energy use.
The climate negotiators from India will also discuss finalising the carbon market rules set under the Paris Agreement.
Overall, at #COP26, the Indian delegation will work to complete Paris Agreement implementation guidelines—the mobilisation of climate finance, strengthening climate adaptation, and technology development and transfer.
India is also expected to stress the urgency to prioritise adaptation even at the UNFCCC and discuss whether the scale of resources matches the scale of needs of developing countries.
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As if small scorpions weren’t scary enough, scientists have discovered an ancient fossil of a sea scorpion that was 16 times larger than the present-day scorpion—almost as big as a dog!
📸: Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology/Y Dinghua
Named Terropterus xiushanensis, this arachnid was a relative of the present-day horseshoe crab and whip spider.
It had similar spiny attacking forelimbs & belonged to mixopterids—a group of eurypterids (sea scorpions)—also recognised for their specialised arms for catching prey.
The fearsome beast is suspected of having lived during the Silurian period—somewhere between 443.8 million and 419.2 million years ago—where it would have been an apex underwater predator.
Sometime during the Cretaceous Era, roughly 100 million years ago, a tiny crab marched out of its home in the sea, climbed a tree, and got itself trapped in a dollop of tree trunk goop.
But little did this young crustacean know that the amber would immortalise it!
Fast forward to 2015, when researchers stumbled upon a piece of amber jewellery with a two-millimetre-long crab lodged in it in a market in Tengchong, China.
Leather jackets that are a style statement today (unfortunately!) may have been a trend from the Pleistocene era! Here’s how researchers from @MPIWG found evidence of early humans who wore leather clothes around 100,000 years ago!
The researchers unearthed 62 bones from layers dating from the Pleistocene era that appeared to have been used as tools. Early humans made these specialised bone tools to skin animals and then processed these skins for fur and leather.
Researchers also found broad, rounded end objects called spatulates, ideal for scraping & removing internal connective tissues from leathers & pelts during the hide or fur-working process. A whale tooth was also retrieved, which appeared to have been used to flake stone.
Opening jars, playing with toys, sneakily escaping from confinements, jetting water to soak people—#octopuses are notorious for such intelligent antics!
Their large brains make them capable of high-order cognitive behaviours, including problem-solving and tool usage.
Now, researchers have come across yet another interesting behaviour among the female octopuses: one which involves throwing objects at males attempting to mate with them!
The teeth of a new species of the hybodont #shark, which belonged to the #Jurassic era, have been discovered for the first time in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. #Paleontology#Fossil
The fossils were discovered from the Jurassic rocks in the #Jaisalmer region of #Rajasthan. The rocks are between 160 and 168 million years old.
The crushing teeth represent a new species, named by the research team as 'Strophodusjaisalmerensis'.
The genus Strophodus has been identified for the first time in the Indian sub-continent, and is only the third such record from Asia—the other two being from Japan and Thailand.