Environment: May 2021 Current Affair | Environment & Additional Topics for State PSC Exams - BPSC (Bihar) PDF Download

 Page 1


	
47	 																																																																				
5.	ENVIRONMENT	
5.1.	CLIMATE-SMART	PUBLIC	PRIVATE	PARTNERSHIPS	
Why in news? 
According to World Bank, implementing the Paris climate agreement and the transition to a low carbon 
economy require adequate climate finance and Climate-Smart PPPs (Public Private Partnership) has a key role 
to play in scaling up Climate finances. 
What are Climate Smart PPPs? 
According to World Bank, PPPs is ‘a long-term contract between a private party and a government agency, for 
providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management 
responsibility’. In this context, a climate-smart PPP is the one which has following characteristics: 
 
Why do we need climate-smart PPPs?  
• Capital Availability: Public private partnerships have a great potential to reduce the burden on local 
finances and provide the necessary resources to address climate change by promoting green growth. 
o The maximum estimated available funding in future for climate change through the UNFCCC and other 
funds is $100 billion per year, which is far less than the estimated requirement of $275 billion per year 
for mitigation and adaptation finance.  
• Technological Expertise: The private sector brings with it new technologies and associated technical 
expertise necessary to meet the climate change targets. 
• Inclusive Approach: PPPs provides inclusive frameworks by ensuring public leadership and accountability in 
tackling climate change, while enabling the ownership of certain components of climate finance to be 
transferred to private hands. 
• Enhanced value-for-money through the allocation of different risks to parties most suited to manage them, 
resulting in reduced costs over project life-cycles;  
• Improved implementation and service delivery, benefiting from the specific and complementary 
characteristics of public and private actors. 
• Increased financial leverage, supported by a range of policy and financial instruments that can be deployed 
in climate finance PPPs. 
	
Page 2


	
47	 																																																																				
5.	ENVIRONMENT	
5.1.	CLIMATE-SMART	PUBLIC	PRIVATE	PARTNERSHIPS	
Why in news? 
According to World Bank, implementing the Paris climate agreement and the transition to a low carbon 
economy require adequate climate finance and Climate-Smart PPPs (Public Private Partnership) has a key role 
to play in scaling up Climate finances. 
What are Climate Smart PPPs? 
According to World Bank, PPPs is ‘a long-term contract between a private party and a government agency, for 
providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management 
responsibility’. In this context, a climate-smart PPP is the one which has following characteristics: 
 
Why do we need climate-smart PPPs?  
• Capital Availability: Public private partnerships have a great potential to reduce the burden on local 
finances and provide the necessary resources to address climate change by promoting green growth. 
o The maximum estimated available funding in future for climate change through the UNFCCC and other 
funds is $100 billion per year, which is far less than the estimated requirement of $275 billion per year 
for mitigation and adaptation finance.  
• Technological Expertise: The private sector brings with it new technologies and associated technical 
expertise necessary to meet the climate change targets. 
• Inclusive Approach: PPPs provides inclusive frameworks by ensuring public leadership and accountability in 
tackling climate change, while enabling the ownership of certain components of climate finance to be 
transferred to private hands. 
• Enhanced value-for-money through the allocation of different risks to parties most suited to manage them, 
resulting in reduced costs over project life-cycles;  
• Improved implementation and service delivery, benefiting from the specific and complementary 
characteristics of public and private actors. 
• Increased financial leverage, supported by a range of policy and financial instruments that can be deployed 
in climate finance PPPs. 
	
	
48	 																																																																		
Some examples of Climate Smart PPP mechanism 
• P4G, which stands for Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, is a global initiative that seeks 
solutions for climate action and green economic growth through public-private partnerships and aims to deliver on 
the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. 
• The Community Development Carbon Fund is a PPP fund that overcame traditional limitations of carbon markets to 
support the financing of small-scale, pro-poor projects. 
• In India, National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) looks into inclusive sustainable development and 
inclusion of civil society and PPP in the process. 
What are the challenges associated with creation of Climate Smart PPPs?  
• Policy and regulatory issues: Unsupportive Environmental policy distorts the relative pricing of clean versus 
polluting projects and introduces regulatory risk and uncertainty for private investors. 
• Deterministic Contracts vs. Uncertain Events: In principle, the deterministic features of PPP contracts are 
not conducive to manage uncertain events as PPP contracts lacks a flexible approach to deal with risks that 
have high uncertainties and unpredictability, such as climate risks. 
• Relief & Compensation: Lack of a comprehensive list to capture all climate risks exposes the PPP asset to not 
being able to qualify certain events (e.g., storm, hail damage) as relief or compensation events.  
• Insurance: Lack of access by developing countries to commercial insurance markets exposes PPP assets to 
long-term climate risks. 
ü Limited access and affordability of insurance increases risks in PPP projects and dissuades investors from 
investing in risky PPPs. 
• Procurement Bias: Innovative resilience measures proposed by the private sector for managing climate risks 
might require additional compensation (e.g., to meet additional adaptation costs). 
• Principal-Agent Problem: In wake of undefined and unallocated risks such as climate risks, Principal-agent 
problems such as information asymmetry and moral hazards related to PPPs could be a major concern. 
How to overcome these challenges and create a framework for creation of Climate-smart PPPs?  
• Securing Private Interests: PPPs framework 
should provide long-term visibility and 
stability to investors by supporting de-risking 
of private finance. 
• PPP formulation: Co-creation of PPP and early 
private sector involvement are essential 
ingredients to ensure that transparent and 
effective financial mechanisms are 
established, and that PPPs are developed in 
accordance with the characteristics and needs 
of all actors involved. 
• Proper Coordination: Mobility programs 
whereby staffs are exchanged for a certain 
period between different organisations may 
be an effective way to build bridges and 
reconcile the languages and understandings of 
public and private actors. 
• Risk sharing: Increased joint risk-taking, 
supported by expert technical assistance, will support scaled up and accelerated deployment of climate 
finance. 
• Consultation among Stakeholders: Robust stakeholder consultation processes should be established as PPPs 
aim to deliver public services and end-beneficiaries should be duly considered to ensure that climate finance 
PPPs address on-the-ground needs effectively. 
• Evaluation Mechanism: Systematic evaluation of real examples of PPPs will contribute to greater interest in 
their use and also help identify more success specific factors. 
	
	
Page 3


	
47	 																																																																				
5.	ENVIRONMENT	
5.1.	CLIMATE-SMART	PUBLIC	PRIVATE	PARTNERSHIPS	
Why in news? 
According to World Bank, implementing the Paris climate agreement and the transition to a low carbon 
economy require adequate climate finance and Climate-Smart PPPs (Public Private Partnership) has a key role 
to play in scaling up Climate finances. 
What are Climate Smart PPPs? 
According to World Bank, PPPs is ‘a long-term contract between a private party and a government agency, for 
providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management 
responsibility’. In this context, a climate-smart PPP is the one which has following characteristics: 
 
Why do we need climate-smart PPPs?  
• Capital Availability: Public private partnerships have a great potential to reduce the burden on local 
finances and provide the necessary resources to address climate change by promoting green growth. 
o The maximum estimated available funding in future for climate change through the UNFCCC and other 
funds is $100 billion per year, which is far less than the estimated requirement of $275 billion per year 
for mitigation and adaptation finance.  
• Technological Expertise: The private sector brings with it new technologies and associated technical 
expertise necessary to meet the climate change targets. 
• Inclusive Approach: PPPs provides inclusive frameworks by ensuring public leadership and accountability in 
tackling climate change, while enabling the ownership of certain components of climate finance to be 
transferred to private hands. 
• Enhanced value-for-money through the allocation of different risks to parties most suited to manage them, 
resulting in reduced costs over project life-cycles;  
• Improved implementation and service delivery, benefiting from the specific and complementary 
characteristics of public and private actors. 
• Increased financial leverage, supported by a range of policy and financial instruments that can be deployed 
in climate finance PPPs. 
	
	
48	 																																																																		
Some examples of Climate Smart PPP mechanism 
• P4G, which stands for Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, is a global initiative that seeks 
solutions for climate action and green economic growth through public-private partnerships and aims to deliver on 
the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. 
• The Community Development Carbon Fund is a PPP fund that overcame traditional limitations of carbon markets to 
support the financing of small-scale, pro-poor projects. 
• In India, National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) looks into inclusive sustainable development and 
inclusion of civil society and PPP in the process. 
What are the challenges associated with creation of Climate Smart PPPs?  
• Policy and regulatory issues: Unsupportive Environmental policy distorts the relative pricing of clean versus 
polluting projects and introduces regulatory risk and uncertainty for private investors. 
• Deterministic Contracts vs. Uncertain Events: In principle, the deterministic features of PPP contracts are 
not conducive to manage uncertain events as PPP contracts lacks a flexible approach to deal with risks that 
have high uncertainties and unpredictability, such as climate risks. 
• Relief & Compensation: Lack of a comprehensive list to capture all climate risks exposes the PPP asset to not 
being able to qualify certain events (e.g., storm, hail damage) as relief or compensation events.  
• Insurance: Lack of access by developing countries to commercial insurance markets exposes PPP assets to 
long-term climate risks. 
ü Limited access and affordability of insurance increases risks in PPP projects and dissuades investors from 
investing in risky PPPs. 
• Procurement Bias: Innovative resilience measures proposed by the private sector for managing climate risks 
might require additional compensation (e.g., to meet additional adaptation costs). 
• Principal-Agent Problem: In wake of undefined and unallocated risks such as climate risks, Principal-agent 
problems such as information asymmetry and moral hazards related to PPPs could be a major concern. 
How to overcome these challenges and create a framework for creation of Climate-smart PPPs?  
• Securing Private Interests: PPPs framework 
should provide long-term visibility and 
stability to investors by supporting de-risking 
of private finance. 
• PPP formulation: Co-creation of PPP and early 
private sector involvement are essential 
ingredients to ensure that transparent and 
effective financial mechanisms are 
established, and that PPPs are developed in 
accordance with the characteristics and needs 
of all actors involved. 
• Proper Coordination: Mobility programs 
whereby staffs are exchanged for a certain 
period between different organisations may 
be an effective way to build bridges and 
reconcile the languages and understandings of 
public and private actors. 
• Risk sharing: Increased joint risk-taking, 
supported by expert technical assistance, will support scaled up and accelerated deployment of climate 
finance. 
• Consultation among Stakeholders: Robust stakeholder consultation processes should be established as PPPs 
aim to deliver public services and end-beneficiaries should be duly considered to ensure that climate finance 
PPPs address on-the-ground needs effectively. 
• Evaluation Mechanism: Systematic evaluation of real examples of PPPs will contribute to greater interest in 
their use and also help identify more success specific factors. 
	
	
	
49	 																																																																											
5.2.	PROTECTED	PLANET	REPORT	2020	
Why in News? 
UN Environment World 
Conservation 
Monitoring Centre 
(UNEP-WCMC), the 
International Union for 
Conservation of Nature 
(IUCN) and the National 
Geographic Society 
released the report. 
About the report	 
• Protected Planet 
Reports are biennial 
landmark 
publications that 
assess the state of 
protected and 
conserved areas 
around the world.  
o Protected and 
conserved 
areas 
collectively 
describe all sites 
in terrestrial 
and aquatic 
systems that 
aim to achieve, 
or are effective 
in achieving, 
conservation 
outcomes. 
o Protected areas 
can prevent 
species 
extinctions and experience lower levels of human pressure than external areas. 
• The 2020 edition provides the final report on the status of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 and looks to the 
future as the world prepares to adopt a new post-2020 global biodiversity framework. 
• It is the first in the series to include data on other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) in 
addition to protected areas. 
o Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are conservation designation for areas that 
are achieving the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas. 
o While protected areas must have conservation as a primary objective, there is no restriction on the 
management objectives of OECMs, provided those objectives result in effective long-term conservation 
outcomes for biodiversity. 
About Aichi Biodiversity Targets 
• In 2010, at Nagoya, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 
2011–2020, a ten-year framework for action by all countries and stakeholders to safeguard biodiversity and the 
benefits it provides to people.  
• As part of the Strategic Plan 20 ambitious but realistic targets, known as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, were adopted. 
o Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 aims to conserve 17 per cent of land and inland water ecosystems and 10 per cent of 
its coastal waters and oceans by 2020.  
Page 4


	
47	 																																																																				
5.	ENVIRONMENT	
5.1.	CLIMATE-SMART	PUBLIC	PRIVATE	PARTNERSHIPS	
Why in news? 
According to World Bank, implementing the Paris climate agreement and the transition to a low carbon 
economy require adequate climate finance and Climate-Smart PPPs (Public Private Partnership) has a key role 
to play in scaling up Climate finances. 
What are Climate Smart PPPs? 
According to World Bank, PPPs is ‘a long-term contract between a private party and a government agency, for 
providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management 
responsibility’. In this context, a climate-smart PPP is the one which has following characteristics: 
 
Why do we need climate-smart PPPs?  
• Capital Availability: Public private partnerships have a great potential to reduce the burden on local 
finances and provide the necessary resources to address climate change by promoting green growth. 
o The maximum estimated available funding in future for climate change through the UNFCCC and other 
funds is $100 billion per year, which is far less than the estimated requirement of $275 billion per year 
for mitigation and adaptation finance.  
• Technological Expertise: The private sector brings with it new technologies and associated technical 
expertise necessary to meet the climate change targets. 
• Inclusive Approach: PPPs provides inclusive frameworks by ensuring public leadership and accountability in 
tackling climate change, while enabling the ownership of certain components of climate finance to be 
transferred to private hands. 
• Enhanced value-for-money through the allocation of different risks to parties most suited to manage them, 
resulting in reduced costs over project life-cycles;  
• Improved implementation and service delivery, benefiting from the specific and complementary 
characteristics of public and private actors. 
• Increased financial leverage, supported by a range of policy and financial instruments that can be deployed 
in climate finance PPPs. 
	
	
48	 																																																																		
Some examples of Climate Smart PPP mechanism 
• P4G, which stands for Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, is a global initiative that seeks 
solutions for climate action and green economic growth through public-private partnerships and aims to deliver on 
the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. 
• The Community Development Carbon Fund is a PPP fund that overcame traditional limitations of carbon markets to 
support the financing of small-scale, pro-poor projects. 
• In India, National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) looks into inclusive sustainable development and 
inclusion of civil society and PPP in the process. 
What are the challenges associated with creation of Climate Smart PPPs?  
• Policy and regulatory issues: Unsupportive Environmental policy distorts the relative pricing of clean versus 
polluting projects and introduces regulatory risk and uncertainty for private investors. 
• Deterministic Contracts vs. Uncertain Events: In principle, the deterministic features of PPP contracts are 
not conducive to manage uncertain events as PPP contracts lacks a flexible approach to deal with risks that 
have high uncertainties and unpredictability, such as climate risks. 
• Relief & Compensation: Lack of a comprehensive list to capture all climate risks exposes the PPP asset to not 
being able to qualify certain events (e.g., storm, hail damage) as relief or compensation events.  
• Insurance: Lack of access by developing countries to commercial insurance markets exposes PPP assets to 
long-term climate risks. 
ü Limited access and affordability of insurance increases risks in PPP projects and dissuades investors from 
investing in risky PPPs. 
• Procurement Bias: Innovative resilience measures proposed by the private sector for managing climate risks 
might require additional compensation (e.g., to meet additional adaptation costs). 
• Principal-Agent Problem: In wake of undefined and unallocated risks such as climate risks, Principal-agent 
problems such as information asymmetry and moral hazards related to PPPs could be a major concern. 
How to overcome these challenges and create a framework for creation of Climate-smart PPPs?  
• Securing Private Interests: PPPs framework 
should provide long-term visibility and 
stability to investors by supporting de-risking 
of private finance. 
• PPP formulation: Co-creation of PPP and early 
private sector involvement are essential 
ingredients to ensure that transparent and 
effective financial mechanisms are 
established, and that PPPs are developed in 
accordance with the characteristics and needs 
of all actors involved. 
• Proper Coordination: Mobility programs 
whereby staffs are exchanged for a certain 
period between different organisations may 
be an effective way to build bridges and 
reconcile the languages and understandings of 
public and private actors. 
• Risk sharing: Increased joint risk-taking, 
supported by expert technical assistance, will support scaled up and accelerated deployment of climate 
finance. 
• Consultation among Stakeholders: Robust stakeholder consultation processes should be established as PPPs 
aim to deliver public services and end-beneficiaries should be duly considered to ensure that climate finance 
PPPs address on-the-ground needs effectively. 
• Evaluation Mechanism: Systematic evaluation of real examples of PPPs will contribute to greater interest in 
their use and also help identify more success specific factors. 
	
	
	
49	 																																																																											
5.2.	PROTECTED	PLANET	REPORT	2020	
Why in News? 
UN Environment World 
Conservation 
Monitoring Centre 
(UNEP-WCMC), the 
International Union for 
Conservation of Nature 
(IUCN) and the National 
Geographic Society 
released the report. 
About the report	 
• Protected Planet 
Reports are biennial 
landmark 
publications that 
assess the state of 
protected and 
conserved areas 
around the world.  
o Protected and 
conserved 
areas 
collectively 
describe all sites 
in terrestrial 
and aquatic 
systems that 
aim to achieve, 
or are effective 
in achieving, 
conservation 
outcomes. 
o Protected areas 
can prevent 
species 
extinctions and experience lower levels of human pressure than external areas. 
• The 2020 edition provides the final report on the status of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 and looks to the 
future as the world prepares to adopt a new post-2020 global biodiversity framework. 
• It is the first in the series to include data on other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) in 
addition to protected areas. 
o Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are conservation designation for areas that 
are achieving the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas. 
o While protected areas must have conservation as a primary objective, there is no restriction on the 
management objectives of OECMs, provided those objectives result in effective long-term conservation 
outcomes for biodiversity. 
About Aichi Biodiversity Targets 
• In 2010, at Nagoya, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 
2011–2020, a ten-year framework for action by all countries and stakeholders to safeguard biodiversity and the 
benefits it provides to people.  
• As part of the Strategic Plan 20 ambitious but realistic targets, known as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, were adopted. 
o Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 aims to conserve 17 per cent of land and inland water ecosystems and 10 per cent of 
its coastal waters and oceans by 2020.  
	
50	 																																																																											
5.3.	GLOBAL	METHANE	ASSESSMENT	
Why in news? 
“Global Methane 
Assessment: Benefits and 
Costs of Mitigating 
Methane Emissions” was 
published by the United 
Nations Environment 
Programme in association 
with the Climate and Clean 
Air Coalition. 
About Methane  
• Methane is a short-
lived climate pollutant 
(SLCP) with an 
atmospheric lifetime of 
roughly a decade. 
o Short-lived climate 
pollutants are powerful climate forcers that remain in the atmosphere for a much shorter period of time 
than carbon dioxide (CO2), yet their potential to warm the atmosphere can be many times greater. 
• Methane contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone, a dangerous air pollutant.  
o Ozone attributable to anthropogenic methane emissions causes approximately half a million premature 
deaths per year globally and harms ecosystems and crops by suppressing growth and diminishing 
production.  
• Methane’s short atmospheric lifetime means taking action now can quickly reduce atmospheric 
concentrations and result in similarly rapid reductions in climate forcing (an imbalance in radiation at the 
top of the Earth's atmosphere) and ozone pollution. 
Key findings of the report 
• Increasing Concentration of 
Methane: Methane’s atmospheric 
concentration has more than 
doubled since pre-industrial times.  
o Second only to carbon dioxide 
in driving climate change. 
o Methane in the atmosphere 
reached record levels last year 
even though CO2 levels 
dropped during the pandemic.   
• Reducing anthropogenic 
emissions: Reduction of 
anthropogenic emissions by 45% would prevent a rise in global warming by up to 0.3 degrees Celsius by 
2045. 
• Varying mitigation potential: The mitigation potential varied between countries and regions. For example, 
China’s mitigation potential was best in coal production and livestock, India’s in the waste sector. 
o The fossil fuel industry had the greatest potential for low-cost methane cuts. 
Other recommendations to reduce Methane Emissions:  
• Behavioural change measures (to prevent emissions from agriculture) like: 
o reducing food waste and loss,  
o improving livestock management 
o adoption of healthy diets (vegetarian or with a lower meat and dairy content)  
 
Page 5


	
47	 																																																																				
5.	ENVIRONMENT	
5.1.	CLIMATE-SMART	PUBLIC	PRIVATE	PARTNERSHIPS	
Why in news? 
According to World Bank, implementing the Paris climate agreement and the transition to a low carbon 
economy require adequate climate finance and Climate-Smart PPPs (Public Private Partnership) has a key role 
to play in scaling up Climate finances. 
What are Climate Smart PPPs? 
According to World Bank, PPPs is ‘a long-term contract between a private party and a government agency, for 
providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management 
responsibility’. In this context, a climate-smart PPP is the one which has following characteristics: 
 
Why do we need climate-smart PPPs?  
• Capital Availability: Public private partnerships have a great potential to reduce the burden on local 
finances and provide the necessary resources to address climate change by promoting green growth. 
o The maximum estimated available funding in future for climate change through the UNFCCC and other 
funds is $100 billion per year, which is far less than the estimated requirement of $275 billion per year 
for mitigation and adaptation finance.  
• Technological Expertise: The private sector brings with it new technologies and associated technical 
expertise necessary to meet the climate change targets. 
• Inclusive Approach: PPPs provides inclusive frameworks by ensuring public leadership and accountability in 
tackling climate change, while enabling the ownership of certain components of climate finance to be 
transferred to private hands. 
• Enhanced value-for-money through the allocation of different risks to parties most suited to manage them, 
resulting in reduced costs over project life-cycles;  
• Improved implementation and service delivery, benefiting from the specific and complementary 
characteristics of public and private actors. 
• Increased financial leverage, supported by a range of policy and financial instruments that can be deployed 
in climate finance PPPs. 
	
	
48	 																																																																		
Some examples of Climate Smart PPP mechanism 
• P4G, which stands for Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, is a global initiative that seeks 
solutions for climate action and green economic growth through public-private partnerships and aims to deliver on 
the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. 
• The Community Development Carbon Fund is a PPP fund that overcame traditional limitations of carbon markets to 
support the financing of small-scale, pro-poor projects. 
• In India, National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) looks into inclusive sustainable development and 
inclusion of civil society and PPP in the process. 
What are the challenges associated with creation of Climate Smart PPPs?  
• Policy and regulatory issues: Unsupportive Environmental policy distorts the relative pricing of clean versus 
polluting projects and introduces regulatory risk and uncertainty for private investors. 
• Deterministic Contracts vs. Uncertain Events: In principle, the deterministic features of PPP contracts are 
not conducive to manage uncertain events as PPP contracts lacks a flexible approach to deal with risks that 
have high uncertainties and unpredictability, such as climate risks. 
• Relief & Compensation: Lack of a comprehensive list to capture all climate risks exposes the PPP asset to not 
being able to qualify certain events (e.g., storm, hail damage) as relief or compensation events.  
• Insurance: Lack of access by developing countries to commercial insurance markets exposes PPP assets to 
long-term climate risks. 
ü Limited access and affordability of insurance increases risks in PPP projects and dissuades investors from 
investing in risky PPPs. 
• Procurement Bias: Innovative resilience measures proposed by the private sector for managing climate risks 
might require additional compensation (e.g., to meet additional adaptation costs). 
• Principal-Agent Problem: In wake of undefined and unallocated risks such as climate risks, Principal-agent 
problems such as information asymmetry and moral hazards related to PPPs could be a major concern. 
How to overcome these challenges and create a framework for creation of Climate-smart PPPs?  
• Securing Private Interests: PPPs framework 
should provide long-term visibility and 
stability to investors by supporting de-risking 
of private finance. 
• PPP formulation: Co-creation of PPP and early 
private sector involvement are essential 
ingredients to ensure that transparent and 
effective financial mechanisms are 
established, and that PPPs are developed in 
accordance with the characteristics and needs 
of all actors involved. 
• Proper Coordination: Mobility programs 
whereby staffs are exchanged for a certain 
period between different organisations may 
be an effective way to build bridges and 
reconcile the languages and understandings of 
public and private actors. 
• Risk sharing: Increased joint risk-taking, 
supported by expert technical assistance, will support scaled up and accelerated deployment of climate 
finance. 
• Consultation among Stakeholders: Robust stakeholder consultation processes should be established as PPPs 
aim to deliver public services and end-beneficiaries should be duly considered to ensure that climate finance 
PPPs address on-the-ground needs effectively. 
• Evaluation Mechanism: Systematic evaluation of real examples of PPPs will contribute to greater interest in 
their use and also help identify more success specific factors. 
	
	
	
49	 																																																																											
5.2.	PROTECTED	PLANET	REPORT	2020	
Why in News? 
UN Environment World 
Conservation 
Monitoring Centre 
(UNEP-WCMC), the 
International Union for 
Conservation of Nature 
(IUCN) and the National 
Geographic Society 
released the report. 
About the report	 
• Protected Planet 
Reports are biennial 
landmark 
publications that 
assess the state of 
protected and 
conserved areas 
around the world.  
o Protected and 
conserved 
areas 
collectively 
describe all sites 
in terrestrial 
and aquatic 
systems that 
aim to achieve, 
or are effective 
in achieving, 
conservation 
outcomes. 
o Protected areas 
can prevent 
species 
extinctions and experience lower levels of human pressure than external areas. 
• The 2020 edition provides the final report on the status of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 and looks to the 
future as the world prepares to adopt a new post-2020 global biodiversity framework. 
• It is the first in the series to include data on other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) in 
addition to protected areas. 
o Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are conservation designation for areas that 
are achieving the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas. 
o While protected areas must have conservation as a primary objective, there is no restriction on the 
management objectives of OECMs, provided those objectives result in effective long-term conservation 
outcomes for biodiversity. 
About Aichi Biodiversity Targets 
• In 2010, at Nagoya, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 
2011–2020, a ten-year framework for action by all countries and stakeholders to safeguard biodiversity and the 
benefits it provides to people.  
• As part of the Strategic Plan 20 ambitious but realistic targets, known as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, were adopted. 
o Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 aims to conserve 17 per cent of land and inland water ecosystems and 10 per cent of 
its coastal waters and oceans by 2020.  
	
50	 																																																																											
5.3.	GLOBAL	METHANE	ASSESSMENT	
Why in news? 
“Global Methane 
Assessment: Benefits and 
Costs of Mitigating 
Methane Emissions” was 
published by the United 
Nations Environment 
Programme in association 
with the Climate and Clean 
Air Coalition. 
About Methane  
• Methane is a short-
lived climate pollutant 
(SLCP) with an 
atmospheric lifetime of 
roughly a decade. 
o Short-lived climate 
pollutants are powerful climate forcers that remain in the atmosphere for a much shorter period of time 
than carbon dioxide (CO2), yet their potential to warm the atmosphere can be many times greater. 
• Methane contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone, a dangerous air pollutant.  
o Ozone attributable to anthropogenic methane emissions causes approximately half a million premature 
deaths per year globally and harms ecosystems and crops by suppressing growth and diminishing 
production.  
• Methane’s short atmospheric lifetime means taking action now can quickly reduce atmospheric 
concentrations and result in similarly rapid reductions in climate forcing (an imbalance in radiation at the 
top of the Earth's atmosphere) and ozone pollution. 
Key findings of the report 
• Increasing Concentration of 
Methane: Methane’s atmospheric 
concentration has more than 
doubled since pre-industrial times.  
o Second only to carbon dioxide 
in driving climate change. 
o Methane in the atmosphere 
reached record levels last year 
even though CO2 levels 
dropped during the pandemic.   
• Reducing anthropogenic 
emissions: Reduction of 
anthropogenic emissions by 45% would prevent a rise in global warming by up to 0.3 degrees Celsius by 
2045. 
• Varying mitigation potential: The mitigation potential varied between countries and regions. For example, 
China’s mitigation potential was best in coal production and livestock, India’s in the waste sector. 
o The fossil fuel industry had the greatest potential for low-cost methane cuts. 
Other recommendations to reduce Methane Emissions:  
• Behavioural change measures (to prevent emissions from agriculture) like: 
o reducing food waste and loss,  
o improving livestock management 
o adoption of healthy diets (vegetarian or with a lower meat and dairy content)  
 
	
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• Other measures like:  
o Improved treatment and disposal of solid waste.  
o Transition to renewable energy,  
o A global tax on methane emissions  
• Overcoming barriers like:  
o Addressing the lack of financing,  
o enhancing awareness,  
o Changing production methods, etc. 
• Greater regional and global coordination and governance of methane mitigation: While methane 
reductions are increasingly being addressed through local and national laws and under voluntary 
programmes, there are few international political agreements with specific targets for methane.  
o The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) leads global efforts to drive high-level ambition, and 
strengthens national actions, polices, planning, and regulations around methane mitigation. 
UN Environment Programme 
• It was established in June 1972 as an outcome from the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment 
(Stockholm Conference, 1972). 
• It works under the umbrella of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, identifying and addressing the 
most relevant environmental issues of our time.  
• It sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension 
of sustainable development and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. 
• Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, UNEP is chaired by its Executive Director. 
• UNEP depends on voluntary contributions for 95% of its income. 
• It administers, or provides secretariat functions for many multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and other 
entities (see infographic) 
 
• Reports  
o Global Environment Outlook (GEO) Report 
o Adaptation Gap Report 
o Triple Emergency  
o Cooling Emissions And Policy Synthesis Report (published by UNEP in association with Cooling Emissions And 
Policy Synthesis Report) 
Climate and Clean Air Coalition 
• It is a voluntary partnership of governments, intergovernmental organizations, businesses, scientific institutions and 
civil society organizations committed to protecting the climate and improving air quality through actions to reduce 
short-lived climate pollutants.