ARTICLE | River Management
Wetlands in our climate actions
Recommendations for NDCs Ranjan K Panda Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, India
N
ations are in the process of submitting their updated Nationally D e t e r m i n e d Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Climate Agreement. In fact, nations have been asked by the UN to submit more ambitious climate plans before the next COP26 that is set to happen in Glasgow in November next year, delayed by almost a year due to the COVID19 pandemic impacts. The current plans, communicated as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), fall short of meeting the existing Paris Agreement goals. This agreement has set a goal to keep global average temperature increase substantially less than 2째C against the pre-industrial value but intends to make all attempts so that this can be kept below 1.5째C deg. The Paris Agreement was reached at the COP21 Summit in 2015 and therefore the first milestone date for countries to strengthen their NDCs and enhance emission reduction targets falls this year. It is from this year (2020) that the implementation of Paris Agreement begins. They are now asked to submit the plans by December this year or at best February 2021. One of the top priorities of the Glasgow
34 September 2020 | www.urbanupdate.in
Summit was to have updated and more ambitious NDCs, that would also include growing numbers of national net zero emission targets alongside plans to finalise the technical rulebook for the Paris Agreement ahead of its entry into full legal force. The new plans are therefore very crucial.
The current crisis
The NDCs are also aimed at building capacity of communities to adapt to climate change and build resilience. There is a huge challenge for the world as fossil fuel phase out is not happening in the way it should. Fossil fuels, the predominant contributor to climate change, need to be drastically reduced. However, a 2019 analysis of energy plans has found that there is vast disconnect between climate goals and energy production plans. In fact, it has found that the governments are collectively intending to produce 50 percent more fossil fuels by 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 2째C, and 120 percent more than could be safely burned while keeping warming below 1.5째C. The NDCs at the moment need to triple their pledges to achieve the below 2 degree ambition and increase those by five times in order to be able to meet the 1.5 degree ambition. There is a growing voice that governments take note of the importance of wetlands in achieving both the mitigation and adaptation targets to meet the Paris Climate goals. A just published report by the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA) and Wetlands International (WI) has called upon policy makers and leaders of the nations to make well-informed decisions by clearly understanding climate-related risks and developing well-defined strategies to mitigate
them. Successful climate actions could be those that have at their core nature-based solutions incorporating ecosystem based approaches. Protection and restoration of wetlands can not only help achieve Paris climate goals but also provide a multitude of co-benefits for the societies, economies and ecosystems themselves.
Wetlands to the rescue
This report that emphasises on the importance of integrating wetlands into the NDCs reminds us of the importance of wetlands such as mangroves and peatlands in meeting our ambitious climate goals. In fact the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has already emphasised on the importance of conservation of high-carbon ecosystems such as wetlands, including mangroves and peatlands, as mitigation response options with high impacts. Sadly, we are losing our wetlands and related ecosystems on a large scale. An estimate by the Ramsar Convention of Wetlands found that the world has lost
