G7 calls majors economies to commit to reaching net zero emissions by 2050

The G7 countries have asked all major economies, including India and China, to commit to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and let their emissions peak by 2025.

They also committed to work together with other developed countries to fully meet the goal of jointly mobilising USD 100 billion annually in climate finance (for the period from 2020 to 2025) this year --three years late -- to help developing and poor countries fight climate change, according to a communique.

However, the communique released on Saturday after the meeting of G7 leaders in Hiroshima, Japan, doesn't mention if this amount will be increased for the post-2025 period.

The group of seven, comprising the US, France, the UK, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan, represent the world's richest democracies. Under its G7 presidency, Japan invited India and seven other countries to the summit as guests.

"We call on all Parties especially major economies whose 2030 NDC targets or long-term low GHG emission development strategies (LTSs) are not yet aligned with a 1.5 degree Celsius pathway and net zero by 2050 at the latest, to revisit and strengthen the 2030 NDC targets and publish or update their LTSs as soon as possible and well before UNFCCC-COP28, and to commit to net zero by 2050 at the latest," the G7 communique read.

It said furthermore, "we call on all Parties to commit at UNFCCC-COP28 to peak global GHG emissions immediately and by no later than 2025".

NDC or nationally determined contribution means national plans and pledges made by a country to meet the goal of maintaining global temperature increases to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while aiming for 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

At COP26 in the UK, India had committed to a net-zero carbon emissions target by 2070. Net zero means achieving a balance between the greenhouse gases put into the atmosphere and those taken out.

India submitted its long-term low emission development strategy (LT-LEDS) to the UN climate body at COP27 in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh, detailing what it would do to achieve the net zero emissions target by 2070.

In 2021, India's then environment secretary Rameshwar Prasad Gupta had said that the country's emissions would peak between 2040 and 2045 and then decrease.

At the G7 Ministers Meeting on Climate Energy and Environment in Japan's Sapporo last month, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav had said that meeting the global target of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 will require developed nations to scale up their emission reduction efforts.

India has maintained that the historical cumulative emissions of countries should be the measure of their responsibility to raise ambitions and that some developed nations "must reach net zero even before 2030".

The Earth's global surface temperature has risen by around 1.15 degrees Celsius as compared to the pre-industrial (1850-1900) average and the CO2 spewed into the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution is closely tied to it.

Major damage had already been done before the 1990s when economies like India started to develop, reports suggest.

According to the "Global Carbon Budget Report - 2022", more than half of the world's CO2 emissions in 2021 were from three places -- China (31 per cent), the US (14 per cent), and the European Union (eight per cent).

Ranking fourth, India accounted for seven per cent of global CO2 emissions.

However, at 2.4 tCO2e (tonne carbon dioxide equivalent), India's per capita greenhouse gas emission is far below the global average of 6.3 tCO2e, according to a report released last year by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Per capita emission in the US (14 tCO2e) is far above the global average, followed by Russia (13 tCO2e), China (9.7 tCO2e), Brazil and Indonesia (about 7.5 tCO2e each), and the European Union (7.2 tCO2e).