Pursuing fossils differently

As we all know, during the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris in 2015, it was decided that we should try and limit the rise in the earth's temperature to 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2100 when compared to the pre-industrial era.

- SOMIT DASGUPTA

Of course, 1.5 °C is the mean temperature, which implies that certain parts of the planet would be above 1.5 °C. The fact is that we have already crossed the mean temperature of 1.5 °C in 2024, as reported by some organizations. Each successive report of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) paints a picture that is more grim when compared to the previous one. Similar concerns have been raised by other organizations, such as the World Resources Institute and the United Nations Development Programme in their publications titled the State of Climate Action and Climate Inequality Report, respectively. In order to give a fillip to renewable power generation, it was agreed (during COP28) that renewable capacity should be trebled and that energy efficiency should be doubled by 2030. These are noble thoughts but not easy to implement due to various reasons; however, it is not the objective of this piece to elaborate on this.