Paris Agreement NEWS

US President Joe Biden convened the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), bringing together Heads of State or Government from more than 20 countries, along with other high-level officials. Leaders provided updates on the status of their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) submitted under the Paris Agreement on climate change and announced several joint initiatives, including, the Global Methane Pledge Energy Pathway.

Almost none of the world’s largest polluters have enacted policies compatible with the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global warming to within 2 degrees Celsius, a threshold past which climate disruption is projected to become even more frequent, severe, and unpredictable. Fortunately, despite the absence of adequate government support, renewable energy has grown at an astonishing pace in recent years thanks to its plummeting cost. India, for example, has more than doubled its stock of wind and solar power in the last five years, driven less by sustainability concerns than by clean energy’s potential for cost-effectively meeting citizens’ pressing development needs.

Oil and gas group, BP's annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday was disturbed by the protestors. “this is a crime scene” was the frequent noise disrupting the meeting. Shell, on the other hand, has been praised by the investors for its recent emissions policies. Both the companies are working with the shareholders to meet the 2015 Paris climate agreement. BP's overall carbon emission were the highest in 2018 in six years.

Equinor has assured its support to the goals of 2016 Paris Agreement. The company said, "Equinor is committed to playing an active and positive role in society’s decarbonisation through engagement, technology, operations, innovation and investments. Our activities do not include direct engagement with end users of products". It has informed about its climate change targets through a statement prepared jointly with other investors participating in the Climate Action 100+ initiative.

Equinor has warned about the slow pace of transition to a low-carbon economy. The company’s chief economist insisted on swift, global and coordinated political action to drive changes in consumer behavior and to shift investments towards low carbon technologies. Equinor believes that Paris Agreement goals are achievable, but anymore delay in the actions will make it very hard to reach them. Paris Agreement caps the global rise in temperature below 2oC.

With the objective of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050, New Zealand draws a line on the sand with a ban on offshore oil and gas exploration.  Aligning with the Paris targets, this step is important to create a clean, green and sustainable future for the country. However, the opposition has termed it as “economic vandalism”.