India raises concern over climate financing, technology transfer

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that climate financing continues to be an area of worry as she flagged India’s concerns over funding mechanism and technology transfer.

Her remarks came ahead of the upcoming COP26 Summit to be held at Glasgow in the United Kingdom. Leaders of nearly 200 countries, including India, will gather at the high-level summit on climate change, scheduled to be held from October 31 to November 12, to discuss the way forward to tackle climate action and submit their updated targets.

Sitharaman said it is unclear how the $100 billion per year commitment given in the wake of COP21 has been extended.

Measuring funding commitment

“From my side, of course, one of the issues that I did raise and it is also something which many people do take cognisance of, is we actually don’t know if there were any measures given to measure if the money spent on a particular project will be part of that $100 billion,” Sitharaman said after the conclusion of her meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank here on Friday.

“So, what constitutes $100 billion? How do we measure if $100 billion has actually been given or only some of it has been given?” she said.

Sitharaman said several participants, both in the IMF and World Bank meetings, highlighted this particular issue.

Technology transfer

“Funding is a question of worry for many countries, as much as even the transfer of technology,” she said.

“With the transfer of technology, do we know what technology we are asking for? Do we know which are those things which have to be considered for the debate and transfer of technology,” Sitharaman said.

Responding to a question, the Finance Minister asserted that her view on this was not a reflection of her dissatisfaction.

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“India has fulfilled its commitments, and also submitted a report to show that this is what we have done. What has to be achieved by 2030, we have achieved already...almost achieved, and now we’ve scaled up our expectations on renewable (energy) and we are touching 450 GW (gigawatt),” Sitharaman said.

“From our side, we are moving with our own resources in fulfilling our commitments,” the minister said.

There are things to be done, she acknowledged.

“Because of the level at which many countries are, the development required to comply with even a nationally determined commitment is a lot,” Sitharaman said.

Rising oil prices

She also expressed concern over growing oil prices.

“Even as we’re putting more money into renewables and trying to be cleaner in the energy that we produce, this price rise is something which is going to be of worry,” Sitharaman said.

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Responding to a question, the Finance Minister said sustainable debt funding was discussed during the meetings.

In addition to her meetings at the IMF and the World Bank, Sitharaman had more than 25 bilateral engagements.

Sitharaman has concluded the Washington DC-leg of her US trip. From here, she will go to New York for an interactive session with the business community before flying back home. She started her week-long trip from Boston on Monday.