India says no to fresh targets to cut emissions

India has made no commitment to submit fresh targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, a senior official from the environment ministry said on Saturday while dismissing reports that the country has missed the deadline set by the UN climate change agency to provide an update. A foreign news agency has reported that India and China have missed the deadline of July 30 set by the United Nations (UN) to provide an update on their plans for curbing the release of planet-warming gases. Dismissing the report, Environment Secretary R P Gupta said, "India has no such commitment of making and declaring fresh targets. We have not signed any such agreement." According to the report, UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa welcomed that 110 signatories of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met the cut-off date, which was extended from the end of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But she said it was "far from satisfactory" that only 58 per cent of the signatories had submitted their new targets in time, the report said. Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Syria and 82 other nations also failed to update their nationally-determined contributions (NDCs) for the UN to include the input in a report it is preparing for an international climate change conference in November, the report claimed. "Espinosa noted that a previous report found countries were doing too little to meet the goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century compared with pre-industrial times. The more ambitious target of capping warming at 1.5C (2.7F) is far out of reach," the report said.

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