United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been holding climate conferences annually, and this year’s CoP 30 is scheduled to be held at Belem, a Brazilian city on the Pacific coast, from 10th to 21st November. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, in collaboration with the UN Global Compact, Karnataka Forest Department, and Government of India’s Wood Science & Technology Institute, organised two days of deliberation on 14th and 15th October to determine national priorities for CoP 30. Experts and stakeholders, including this author, participated in the deliberations. Various topics concerning mitigation and adaptation of climate change impacts, such as national adaptation plans while heatwaves are increasingly severe, impact on the lives of communities while Himalayan glaciers retreat, impact of greenhouse gas emissions on planetary and human health, conserving forests and biodiversity, the need for upscaling renewable and nuclear energy, and climate finance were discussed.

The emissions of greenhouse gases since industrialisation began in 1870 have made the planet warmer by 1.2 degrees Celsius, which is causing droughts, changing monsoon patterns, retreating glaciers, and the resulting heatwaves, wildfires, flooding and landslides, cyclones and typhoons have been disrupting lives and livelihoods of the communities in different regions.

The year 2024 has recorded the highest rise in average global temperature, i.e. 1.54 degrees Celsius, and we have seen during the current monsoon months how different regions in the Himalayas have faced destruction due to heavy downpours, flooding and landslides. In every CoP meeting, the goalpost is found to have been changed. The Himalayas were reported to be losing their glaciers fully by 2035 and used to be in focus for discussions in earlier CoPs. Once it was established that the studies were misleading and the retreat of glaciers was not taking place at that fast a pace, the discussions on the Himalayas were omitted in subsequent CoPs. However, it should now be brought in for discussion, as melting of permafrost in the........

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