Today's Headlines

Today's Headlines - 18 November 2022

India's scores in ICAO air safety audit

GS Paper - 2 (International organisations)

India's scores in the ICAO's air safety oversight audit will improve substantially as the international watchdog's just-concluded validation mission was highly successful as per the initial reports, regulator DGCA said on 16 November 202. ICAO is the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

What is USOAP?

  1. Under its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach, an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) was undertaken from 9 November to 16 November 2022.
  2. The audit was conducted in the areas of legislation, organisation, personal licensing, operations, airworthiness and aerodromes.
  3. As per the initial reports, the mission was highly successful. India has done extremely well and our scores will see a substantial improvement putting us in the company of nations with best safety standards and oversight systems.
  4. India is one of the fastest growing civil aviation markets globally and the sector is slowly recovering after being hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
  5. The audit result showed that the country's score declined to 57.44 per cent from 65.82 per cent earlier.
  6. During the November 2017 visit, the ICAO team assessed five areas -- Personnel Licensing and TrainingAircraft OperationsAirworthiness of Aircraft, Primary Aviation Legislation and Civil Aviation Regulations, and Civil Aviation Organisation.

Flashback

  1. USOAP monitors eight audit areas. They are Primary Aviation Legislation and Civil Aviation RegulationsCivil Aviation Organization, Personnel Licensing and Training, Aircraft Operations and Airworthiness of Aircraft.
  2. Other areas are Aircraft Accident and Incident InvestigationAir Navigation Services, and Aerodromes and Ground Aids.
  3. In November 2017, ICAO carried out the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme for India and another team of the watchdog came in February 2018.

India's low-carbon growth

GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

With a seven-point agenda, the Indian government for the first time has submitted its Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LDES) at the Conference of Parties (COP27) in Egypt. The agenda focuses on low-carbon electricity and transport systemsenergy-efficient urban infrastructure, low-emission industrial systems, carbon mitigation technologies, enhanced forest cover, and economic and financial aspects of low-carbon development.

India’s 7 Strategies

  1. Low-carbon electricity systems consistent with development
  2. Integrated, efficient and inclusive low-carbon transport systems
  3. Energy & material-efficiency in buildings
  4. Decoupling growth from emissions, and developing an efficient, low-emission industrial system
  5. CO2 removal and related engineering solutions
  6. Enhancing forest cover consistent with socioeconomic and ecological considerations
  7. Increasing climate resilience in poverty eradication and employment creation

U.N. publishes draft COP27 climate deal

GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

The U.N. climate agency published a first draft on 17 November 2022 of what could be the overarching agreement from the COP27 climate summit. The document, labelled a "non-paper" indicating it is still far from the final version, repeats the goal from last year's Glasgow Climate Pact to "to accelerate measures towards the phase down of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies."

What

  1. It does not call for a phase down of all fossil fuels, as India and the European Union had requested.
  2. The text does not include details for launching a fund for loss and damage, a key demand from the most climate vulnerable countries like island nations.
  3. Rather, it "welcomes" the fact that parties have agreed for the first time to include "matters related to funding arrangements responding to loss and damage" on the summit agenda.
  4. It does not include a timeline for deciding on whether a separate fund should be created or what it should look like, giving time for negotiators to continue working on the contentious topic.
  5. The document "stresses the importance of exerting all efforts at all levels to achieve the Paris Agreement temperature goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels."
  6. The document is based on requests that delegates from nearly 200 countries have sought to be included in the final deal.
  7. It will provide a basis for negotiations over the coming days that are likely to substantially flesh out and rework the text.