Environment minister calls out international community over ambiguity in climate finance
3 min read . Updated: 19 May 2023, 09:36 AM IST
PremiumYadav expressed India’s concerns over the future of loss and damage fund announced at United Nations Conference on Climate Change—popularly known as COP-27
New Delhi: Union environment, forest and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav on Thursday said that the divisions within international community has created ambiguity about climate finance; and expressed India’s concerns over the future of loss and damage fund announced at United Nations Conference on Climate Change—popularly known as COP-27.
The fund was the highlight of COP27 (the UN's 27th Conference of the Parties), held in Egypt. Yadav was speaking at the Hindustan Times G20 Agenda and his remarks come in the backdrop of not much traction on the Green Climate Fund set up to provide developing nations $100 billion annually by 2020 to counter climate change.
“Climate action will also find it difficult to move ahead without adequate climate finance. For now, the international community is divided over the definition of climate finance. This has created an ambiguity in both the funding of climate projects and determining the amount required for it," Yadav, who also heads the Labour and Employment ministry said and added, “The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has operationalised only a working definition so far."
This assumes significance given the importance of climate finance in the backdrop of developing countries battling crisis such as Covid, the war in Europe and protectionist measures such as the new carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) imposed by the European Union.
“For more than a decade the ambiguous language in developed country’s climate finance commitments for adaptation and mitigation has been called out. This includes debates about what counts as ‘climate finance’, the ‘fair share’ of climate finance from diverse provider countries. Yet forward-looking deliberations are undermined by recent history. The developed world has fallen short of honouring its commitment to climate finance," he said.
“There are several estimates of resources required for climate action to meet Net Zero targets set down by countries. It is estimated that $4 trillion per year needs to be invested in renewable energy up until 2030 to be able to reach the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. An investment of at least $4-6 trillion per year will be needed for a global transformation to a low-carbon economy," Yadav added.
India on its part has been working on green financing, managing climate change, energy transition and energy security. India’s union budget presented earlier this year emphasized upon India’s energy transition trajectory and allocated ₹35,000 crore for capital investments towards energy transition and energy security.
“In a remarkable development at COP27 held in Egypt, the world agreed to establish a new funding arrangement, as well as a dedicated fund, to assist developing countries in responding to loss and damage. India, as the voice of the global south, had been a vocal supporter of the loss and damage fund. So, India does consider the creation of the dedicated fund a remarkably important development," Yadav said.
“But India is also concerned over the future of this fund given its past experience and urges the global community to act on it. At COP27 itself, while the loss and damage funding arrangement was agreed upon, serious concern was expressed that the goal of developed country Parties to mobilize jointly $100 billion by 2020 has not yet been met," Yadav added.
India is working on an ambitious plan to meet its commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, and reducing the carbon intensity of its economy by 45% from the 2005 level. India’s energy transition playbook will have a wider impact on the world’s energy markets. At…