How the Quad Can Help Climate Action? : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-2: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

GS-3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life, Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key phrases: QUAD, Climate Working Group, Climate action, Climate Change Performance Index, energy transition, world’s factory, Just-transition framework, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, International Solar Alliance (ISA) and OSOWOG (One Sun One World One Grid).

Context:

Quad can capitalize on the essence of democracy to further the vision and action related to the climate agenda. It is high time that a comprehensive, inclusive and fair approach of regional cooperation is adopted in dealing with one of the most significant global dangers of this century.

Background:

To this effect, during the first Quad meeting held virtually, the nations declared the establishment of the Climate Working Group (CWG) to promote cooperation on climate mitigation, adaptation, resilience, technology, capacity building and climate finance to align domestic, regional and global actions for the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Challenges:

In a scenario where rising population will lead to an increase in energy demand, countries cannot afford to depend on fossil fuels for power generation.
These deplete natural resources, have high input costs and produce often uncontrollable emissions.
While the US and Japan have pledged to achieving net-zero emission status by mid-21st century, India and Australia have chosen to not announce any concrete net-zero targets yet.
As India is being acclaimed as one of the nations that are aggressively pursuing the climate agenda, Australia, Japan and the US have not displayed comparable effort.
According to the Climate Change Performance Index released by German watch, the New Climate Institute and the Climate Action Network in 2021, India was ranked 10th, while its Quad partners are many slots below: US ranking last in a list of 61 countries.

About Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad):

It was born following the tsunami crisis in 2004, turning into a diplomatic dialogue in 2007, and revived in 2017, as a space to jointly cooperate for safeguarding the security and other interests of the Indo-Pacific region.
On 12 March 2021, the first-ever leader-level summit of the Quad was convened virtually among the heads of the four states.
The leaders pledged to strengthen cooperation to address the defining current challenges facing their people and committed to a shared vision for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, resilient and inclusive, rooted in international law to advance security and prosperity, whilst countering threats to Indo-Pacific and beyond.
A joint statement identified and outlined three urgent global challenges: the economic and health impacts of COVID-19, and vaccine development as a response; climate change; and future technologies.

The two areas where the Quad nations can make a consequential impact are energy and climate action.

QUAD and the Energy:

The Quad can drive inclusive energy transition in technology, manufacturing, and finance:
- Quad nations can provide much-needed technology expertise required to achieve the energy transition goals set under frameworks such as the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and OSOWOG (One Sun One World One Grid).
- The US recently became the 101st member of ISA, a re-emphasis of its commitment to lead broadly in the global fight against climate change.
India is well-placed to provide manufacturing infrastructure to build these technologies:
- To take over from China as the “world’s factory”, it will have to mirror its advantages of large-scale production at low costs.
- Doing this successfully will also help create much-needed employment in the country.
Like many major long-term initiatives, energy transition needs adequate funding:
- For instance, “climate finance” is required to facilitate global interconnected grids.

QUAD and the Climate Action:

Address the striking gap of carbon inequality between the developed and developing nations:
- Recognising the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities, both in letter and spirit.
- For instance, it would be unjust for India that emits 1.9 MtCO2e of per capita emission to compensate in similar proportions with nations such as the US, which accounts for 15.52 MtCO2e per capita emissions.
- This would allow Quad to reaffirm its collective belief in the principles of equity and inclusivity in the pursuit of climate goals.
Quad’s Climate Working Group:
- It should adopt a cross-cutting and holistic approach by functioning in close collaboration with its Working Group on Vaccines as well as Critical and Emerging Technologies.
- For instance, the cold chain plays an essential role in vaccine transportation and storage. The global cold chain infrastructure is estimated to contribute 3-3.5% of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Quad could reinvent a more sustainable system by exploring ways of greening the value chain while enhancing the life-cycle of vaccines.
A secretariat or a permanent decision-making body:
- Without which it will be difficult for the group to confront the climate crisis. Therefore, it is imperative for Quad to reassure the global community and adopt a consolidated and integrated approach to strengthen its commitment towards combating climate.
- Even China, considered to be the driving force behind the revival of the group, to curb Quad’s ascent in the Indo-Pacific has announced its climate commitments towards achieving a net-zero target by 2060.
- Thus, climate action can be a low-hanging fruit that will unite the fragile and scattered global actors against the common existential dangers of climate change.
Focus on actionable climate outcomes:
- The group can be an exemplar in institutionalising and delivering on a “just-transition framework” while attempting to design a robust climate mitigation and adaptation plan.
- Quad is best placed to conduct joint research, and demonstrate its capacity to put people and justice at the core of its climate agenda.
- The US’s Just Transition Fund and India’s Just Transition Centre at iFOREST, for example, can serve as an apt entry point for institutionalising the just-transition approach.

Way forward:

The climate crisis calls for urgency in action. With a focus on adaptation, resilience, and preparedness, Quad nations are already driving their efforts toward climate ambition, including working on the 2030 targets for national emissions and renewable energy, clean-energy innovation, and deployment.
The most commendable commitment is their focus on increasing the Indo-Pacific region’s resilience to climate change by improving critical climate information-sharing and disaster-resilient infrastructure.
Plans such as building a new technical facility through the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure to provide technical assistance in small island developing states and setting up a Climate and Information Services Task Force are good steps.
The massive investment planned from now till 2050 to reach the 1.5°C pathway illustrates the scale of what needs to be done.
Quad forms a critical geographical arc that is home to regions vulnerable to multiple impacts of the climate crisis. As an important grouping of states that are home to a quarter of the world’s population and roughly 35 percent of the world’s GDP, the Quad can prove to be a torch-bearer for the global climate agenda.

Source: Indian express

Mains Question:

Q. Aligning on lines with COP-26 Declaration on climate agenda, discuss how the Quad grouping can help in mitigating the climate change.