India to flag climate finance gap at COP27

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (EGYPT): The annual UN climate change conference will begin here in the backdrop of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war and the three scary reports that in the past 10 days noted how the combined pledge for action by over 190 countries is not enough to save the world from the disastrous consequences of global warming.
While two reports from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted huge gap in existing climate action of countries, the third one by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) flagged that the atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases (GHG) — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — reached new record highs in 2021. It means that earth will continue to warm due to these heat-trapping gases.
Representatives of over 190 countries including many heads of government, ministers and officials will in the next 12 days brainstorm over these gaps in order to look for solutions at the CO. India will be represented at the 27th session of the UN climate conference, being held at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt from November 6 to 18, by the country’s environment minister Bhupender Yadav who is leading a team of officials and experts from different ministries.
The country will also showcase Mission LiFE — Lifestyle for Environment — as a theme of India’s pavilion during the conference. The move will bring into focus the unsustainable lifestyle of rich nations whose excessive consumption of resources is considered one of the key factors behind high cumulative historical emissions of greenhouse gases. India is also expected to raise the issue of climate finance at the conference. The UNEP report noted that developing countries will need as much as $340 billion a year by 2030 for taking multiple adaptation measures to minimise the impact of climate change, but the international finance flows from developed nations for this purpose currently stands at less than one-tenth of that amount.