1. INDIA – MIDDLE EAST – EUROPE ECONOMIC CORRIDOR (IMEC)
TAG: GS 2: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; GS 3: ECONOMY
THE CONTEXT: On the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Governments of India, the US, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, the UAE, France, Germany and Italy to establish the India – Middle East – Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).
EXPLANATION:
- The new project is a part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII) – a West-led initiative for funding infrastructure projects across the world, seen as a counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
- The IMEC is being envisioned as a network of transport corridors, including railway lines and sea lanes, that is expected to aid economic growth through integration between Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and Europe.
What is the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII)?
- The infrastructure plan was first announced in June 2021 during the G7 (or Group of Seven) summit in the UK.
- US President had called it the Build Back Better World (B3W) framework. However, it did not register much progress.
- In 2022, during the G7 summit in Germany, the PGII was officially launched as a joint initiative to help fund infrastructure projects in developing countries through public and private investments.
- The stated purpose of both the PGII and the BRI is to help secure funding for countries to build critical infrastructure such as roads, ports, bridges, communication setups, etc. to enhance global trade and cooperation.
What was the need for an alternative?
- China began the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. It aims to revive the ancient trade routes crossing to and from China–from Rome in Europe to East Asia.
- Under this, the Chinese government helped in providing loans for infrastructure projects to various countries, and in many cases, Chinese companies were awarded contracts for carrying out the work. This helped China mark its footprints at a global level.
- However, China was criticised in the West and by some other countries for providing unsustainable debts to countries that will be unable to repay them. According to a 2019 World Bank report, among the 43 corridor economies for which detailed data was available, 12 could face a situation where debts were not sustainable, which could lead to public assets being handed over to foreign contractors or China itself.
- India, however, opposed the BRI as it included the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which connected Kashgar in China with the Gwadar port in Pakistan via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
What has been announced so far as part of PGII initiatives?
- European Commission (the executive arm of the European Union) chief said the IMEC is a further step in the PGII process that was launched last year during the G20 summit in Bali.
- It announced several projects in Indonesia, among other countries, on clean energy, telecommunications, etc.
- India was also a part of this meet, where one of the outcomes for funding was investments in its health infrastructure.
- The US government’s agency, its International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) would invest over $15 million in India’s health infrastructure, including support for the expansion of a chain of eye clinics for conducting corrective surgery for underserved individuals, and an India-based social enterprise that manufactures safe and affordable women’s hygiene products for underserved women in non-metro areas.
- The EU, through its Global Gateway programme, has now said it will “activate 300 billion of investments in critical connectivity projects during the period 2021-2027, half of which is destined for Africa.” Over 90 projects have been identified in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and in the Western Balkans.
2. GLOBAL BIOFUELS ALLIANCE
TAG: GS 2: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; GS 3: ENVIRONMENT
THE CONTEXT: Indian Prime Minister launched the global biofuel alliance on the sidelines of the G 20 summit. It marked a watershed moment in our quest towards sustainability and clean energy.
EXPLANATION:
- With an eye on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec)-plus grouping this alliance is being positioned as a global forum to help boost demand and technology transfer for the production of biofuels and enhance trade.
- Recently released G20 Leaders’ Declaration said that the member countries “recognize the importance of sustainable biofuels in our zero and low- emission development strategies, and note the setting up of a Global Biofuels Alliance”.
- China and oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia have however decided not to be part of the alliance.
Global Biofuel Alliance:
- The Global Biofuel Alliance is an India-led Initiative to develop an alliance of Governments, International organizations, and Industry to facilitate the adoption of biofuels.
- The initiative aims to position biofuels as a key to energy transition and contribute to jobs and economic growth.
- The Alliance which will help strengthen India’s position globally and will focus on collaboration. It will provide additional opportunities to Indian industries in the form of exporting technology and equipment.
- GBA will support worldwide development and deployment of sustainable biofuels by offering capacity-building exercises across the value chain, technical support for national programs and promoting policy lessons-sharing.
- It will facilitate mobilizing a virtual marketplace to assist industries, countries, ecosystem players and key stakeholders in mapping demand and supply, as well as connecting technology providers to end users.
- It will also facilitate development, adoption and implementation of internationally recognized standards, codes, sustainability principles and regulations to incentivize biofuels adoption and trade
GBA members:
- The GBA members include 19 countries and 12 international organizations have so far agreed to join the alliance, including both G20 members and non-member countries.
- GBA founding members constitute major producers and consumers of biofuels. USA (52 per cent), Brazil (30 per cent) and India (3 per cent), and contribute about 85 per cent share in production and about 81 per cent in consumption of ethanol.
- While the four G20 Invitee countries supporting GBA are Bangladesh, Singapore, Mauritius and the UAE. Similarly, the eight non-G20 countries are Iceland, Kenya, Guyana, Paraguay, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Finland.
- International organisations include the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, World Economic Forum, World LPG Organisation, International Energy Agency, International Energy Forum, International Renewable Energy Agency and World Biogas Association.
- The global ethanol market was valued at $99.06 billion in 2022 and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% by 2032 and surpass $162.12 billion by 2032.
Status of Biofuel energy:
- According to estimates from the International Energy Agency (IEA), global biofuel production would need to triple by 2030 to put the world’s energy systems on track toward net zero emissions by 2050.
- In its ambitious energy transition journey, India has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2070.
- India also has an ambitious biofuel roadmap. The government has advanced its target to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2025-26 from an earlier target of 2030.
- The target of petrol supplies with 10% ethanol blending was achieved in June 2022, ahead of the original schedule of November 2022.
- Being set up at par with the International Solar Alliance, the biofuel alliance’s focus is on accelerated adoption of biofuels, creating new biofuels, setting globally recognized standards, identifying global best practices, and ensuring industry participation.
- The global ethanol market was valued at $99.06 billion in 2022 and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% by 2032 and surpass $162.12 billion by 2032.
3. G20 DECLARATION ON HEALTH
TAG: GS 2: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
THE CONTEXT: Recently released G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration mentions three health priorities of India’s G20 presidency.
EXPLANATION:
- The G-20 declaration stressed the importance of one health approach where diseases in animals, plants, and humans are tracked by the same mechanism with focus on tackling antimicrobial resistance.
- The declaration spoke of strengthening primary healthcare, health workforce, and essential health services to better-than-pre-pandemic levels, ideally within the next two to three years.
- In addition to focusing on epidemics such as tuberculosis and AIDS, the G20 recognised the importance of research on long COVID.
The priorities included:
- Building resilient systems for health emergency prevention, preparedness, and response.
- Strengthening cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector with focus on ensuring equitable availability and access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics during a pandemic.
- Creating a platform for sharing digital health innovations and solutions to ensure better and universal health coverage, like CoWIN and e-Sanjeevani.
What is this digital health programme?
- With the pandemic highlighting the importance of digital health innovation, India committed to develop a platform for sharing scalable solutions under the World Health Organisation (WHO) that can be utilised by its member states.
- This culminated in the launch of Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH), with four main pillars
- An investment tracker
- A repository of existing digital health solutions
- Knowledge sharing for implementation and country-specific adaptation of these solutions
- An Ask tracker to monitor the needs of different countries
- While a $200-million fund proposed by India did not find consensus among countries, several non-profits have committed to the fund.
- India has committed to offering its vaccine management platform CoWIN, its tele-medicine platform e-Sanjeevani, and its Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission platform as digital public goods to others.
The Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH)
- The Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH) is a WHO managed network of stakeholders organized to facilitate the implementation of the Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020-2025 and other WHO norms and standards for Digital Health System Transformation.
- The Initiative will serve as a platform to enable a wide global ecosystem to work collectively to promote country capacity and strengthen international cooperation in digital health.
- The Initiative will work to address variability in the quality of digital solutions and emerging technologies related to standards, data privacy, security, and interoperability, etc.
- Digital health is a proven accelerator to advance health outcomes and achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health-related Sustainable Development Goals.
- The Initiative will strive to help Member States to advance their national digital health transformation by strengthening collaboration among partners and existing networks and amplify current multi-national and regional activities.
- The key components of the GIDH will leverage existing evidence, tools and learnings and will be co-created through a transparent and inclusive process. Through this evidence-based and comprehensive co-creation process, GIDH will ultimately aim to:
ALIGN efforts to support of the Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020–2025;
SUPPORT quality-assured technical assistance to develop and strengthen standards-based and interoperable systems aligned to global best practices, norms, and standards;
FACILITATE the deliberate use of quality assured digital transformation tools that enable governments to manage their digital health transformation journey.
GIDH: a network of networks
- As a WHO Managed Network (“Network of Networks”), GIDH will address challenges such as duplication of efforts and “products-focused” digital health transformation through a focus on four foundational pillars:
- Country Needs Tracker – facilitating digital health investments to be informed by country priorities;
- Country Resource Portal – identifying traditional as well as innovative resource opportunities, and promoting transparency, while reducing the risk of duplication for enabling a standards-based prospective and retrospective analysis of resourcing gaps in digital health.
- Transformation Toolbox – advocating for quality-assured tools and resources that strengthen country capacity and autonomy to manage the national digital health transformation.
- Convening and Knowledge Exchange – promoting strengthened collaboration and knowledge exchange across global, regional, and national networks in digital health.
4. GLOBAL STOCKTAKE
TAG: GS 3: ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT
CONTEXT: The United Nations’ Global Stocktake, a report that was released just ahead of the G-20 meet, set out the scope of challenges. This stocktake is to serve as a template to guide discussion ahead of the 28th Conference of Parties scheduled in Dubai in November 2023.
THE GLOBAL STOCKTAKE REPORT:
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) released the Global Stocktake synthesis report, which offers the most comprehensive overview of climate action since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.
- The Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake process is designed to assess the global response to the climate crisis every five years.
- It also provides a roadmap for governments moving forward.
- It evaluates the world’s progress on slashing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience to climate impacts, and securing finance and support to address the climate crisis.
- The COP28 summit in Dubai, UAE, will center around how countries leverage the findings of the Global Stocktake report to keep the global goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C alive and address the impacts of climate change.
Key findings of the report:
- It lays how far the world is from achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals and emphasize the closing window of opportunity.
- It underscores that if we don’t take stronger action before the second Global Stocktake in 2028, we may witness the devastating reality of global temperatures soaring beyond 1.5 degrees C.
- The report also illuminates a path forward that governments will need to follow to combat the climate crisis.
- It pinpoints key areas where immediate action must happen and provides a roadmap for the systems transformations needed to dramatically reduce emissions, build resilience and safeguard our future.
The Global Stocktake would address climate progress in three key areas:
- Mitigation: Evaluating global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) and ideally 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) and identifying opportunities for additional emissions cuts.
- Adaptation: Measuring progress in countries’ abilities to enhance their resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate impacts.
- Means of implementation, including finance, technology transfer and capacity building: Assessing progress on aligning financial flows with emissions-reduction goals and climate-resilient development, and providing support to developing nations to address the climate crisis.
The above diagram depicts the Global Stocktake Process.
5. G20 SUMMIT ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS
TAG: GS 3: ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT
THE CONTEXT: The Group of Twenty (G20) has adopted the G20 New Delhi Leader’s Declaration on September 9, 2023, with consensus on several issues. These include sustainable development goals (SDG), climate finance, energy transitions, using and restoring natural ecosystems, harnessing, and preserving ocean-based economy, plastic pollution, reducing disaster risk and building resilient infrastructure.
NEW DELHI LEADER’S DECLARATION ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS:
GREEN DEVELOPMENT PACT FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE:
- The countries have committed to urgently accelerate actions to address environmental crises and challenges including climate change.
- It reaffirmed the objective of UNFCCC, to tackle climate change by strengthening the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and its temperature goal, reflecting equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances.
√ Macroeconomic risks stemming from climate change and transition pathways:
- It critically assesses and account for the short, medium and long-term macroeconomic impact of both the physical impact of climate change and transition policies, including on growth, inflation, and unemployment.
√ It committed to implement the G20 High-Level Principles on Lifestyles for Sustainable Development (LiFE).
√ It acknowledged the critical role played by circular economy, extended producer responsibility and resource efficiency in achieving sustainable development.
√ Conserving, Protecting, Sustainably Using and Restoring Ecosystems
- It committed to restore by 2030 at least 30% of all degraded ecosystems and scaling up efforts to achieve land degradation neutrality with the following goals:
- For the restoration of natural ecosystems, the G20 countries committed to the full and effective implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and encouraged other countries to do the same.
- It supported the ambition to reduce land degradation by 50% by 2040 on a voluntary basis, as committed under the G20 Global Land Initiative (GLI) and note the discussions on the Gandhinagar Implementation Roadmap and the Gandhinagar Information Platform.
- It called for enhancing global cooperation and sharing of best practices on water, and welcome the deliberations at the UN 2023 Water Conference and G20 Dialogue on Water.
√ Harnessing and Preserving the Ocean-based Economy
- It welcomed the Chennai High Level Principles for a Sustainable and Resilient Blue / Ocean based economy.
- The adoption of “the new international legally binding instrument under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine Biological diversity of areas Beyond National Jurisdiction”.
√ It is determined to end plastic pollution and it will also build on the G20 Marine Litter Action Plan as elucidated in the Osaka Blue Ocean Vision.
√ Reducing Disaster Risk and Building Resilient Infrastructure:
- It noted the institutionalisation of the Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group under the presidency of India, which catalysed efforts towards disaster risk reduction.
- The document also talks about accelerating progress on early warning and early action through strengthening national and local capacities, innovative financing tools, private sector investments and knowledge sharing.
- The members supported the United Nations’ initiatives such as the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure in “furtherance of such collaboration and sharing”.
