UNFCCC - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Second

Explanation:
India has ratified the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol that commits countries to contain the emission of greenhouse gases, reaffirming its stand on climate action.

India’s Permanent Mission to the UN said that India deposited its Instrument of Acceptance of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol under the UN Convention on Climate Change.

With this, India became the 80th country to accept the amendment relating to the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, the international emissions reduction treaty.

India’s acceptance reaffirms our continued commitment to climate action,.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, who handed over India’s Instrument, tweeted “maintaining momentum on Climate Change. India submits instrument of acceptance of Doha Amendment to Kyoto Protocol”.

Kyoto Protocol: Know More

• The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• This commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.
• The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997 and entered into force in February 2005.
• The first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol was from 2008-2012.
• The Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Qatar in December 2012.
• The amendment includes new commitments for parties to the Kyoto Protocol who agreed to take on commitments in a second commitment period from January 2013 to December 2020 and a revised list of greenhouse gases to be reported on by Parties in the second commitment period, according to the UNFCCC website.

ANSWER: Ovais Sarmad

Explanation:
Ovais Sarmad, a senior Indian official, in the second week of May 2017 was appointed as the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The appointment was made after consultation with the Conference of Parties through its Bureau.

Sarmad was appointed to the post at the assistant secretary-general level by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Sarmad will succeed Canada’s Richard Kinley.

At present, Ovais Sarmad serves as Chief of Staff to the Director General of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

He joined IOM in 1990, in Geneva, where he served notably as chief of budget, director of resource management, director of the Global Administrative Centre and chief of Mission to the Philippines.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Hyderabad’s Osmania University. He also holds a professional certification in management accountancy from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in London.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992.

The treaty entered into force on 21 March 1994. Its objective is to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.

One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions.

The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention, with offices in Haus Carstanjen, and UN Campus (known as Langer Eugen) Bonn, Germany.