Developed countries failed to meet global commitments on climate finance: Ashwini Choubey 

New Delhi: Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey said that developed countries failed in its committment to jointly mobilize $100 billion dollar per year by 2020 to address the needs of the developing countries under Paris Agreement.

The Minister stated this in the Rajya Sabha in a written reply and called for “calarity” in the definition of climate finance, its scale, scope and speed of delivery. 

In an unprecedented move, he stated that the final decision of COP26 in Glasgow noted with deep regret that this commitment of developed country Parties in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation has yet to be met.

At the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries committed to jointly mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries. 

At COP21 in Paris, with the developed countries having failed to keep their commitment, it was decided to extend the US$100 billion per year goal through to 2025.

“India’s efforts have repeatedly exposed exaggerated claims by developed country agencies that this goal is close to being met and have shown that the currently mobilized climate finance is in reality much less” he said. 

Choubey said that India has been taking the lead in raising the issue of climate finance at the UNFCCC and in other multilateral forums and the climate finance should be new and additional (with respect to overseas development assistance), predominantly as grants and not loans, as well as balanced between mitigation and adaptation.

“Currently, there are several issues with respect to the definition of climate finance and with respect to transparency of the estimates and the progress made” he said.

The fourth Biennial Assessment of the Standing Committee on Finance of the UNFCCC has presented an updated overview and trends in climate finance flows until 2018. 

According to the assessment, total public financial support reported by developed country parties in October 2020 was $45.4 billion in 2017 and $51.8 billion in 2018.

In the final decisions at COP26, it was agreed that prior to 2025, the Conference of Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement shall set a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) from the floor of US$ 100 billion per year, considering the needs and priorities of the developing countries.

The NCQG will be significantly publicly funded, with greater transparency and predictability, and will take a balanced approach to mitigation and adaptation in light of developing countries’ needs and priorities.

India’s climate actions have so far been largely financed from domestic sources, including government budgetary support as well as a mix of market mechanisms, fiscal instruments and policy interventions. 

As per India’s Third Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the UNFCCC in February 2021, the domestic mobilization of finance fully overshadows the sum total of international funding.

As a party to the UNFCCC, India periodically submits its National Communications (NCs) and Biennial Update Reports (BURs) to the UNFCCC, which includes a national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory. 

As per India’s third BUR submitted to the UNFCCC in February 2021, total net GHG emissions for 2016 are 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2e. 

“Our per capita emissions are 1.96 tCO2, which is less than one third of the world’s per capita GHG emissions, and our annual emissions in 2016 are only about 5 percent of the global emissions. India has contributed only around 4 percent of global cumulative emissions from 1850 to 2019, despite being home to around one-sixth of humanity,” he informed the house.

The Minister said climate change is a global collective action problem to be addressed through multilateralism and all nations of the world must adhere to using only their respective fair shares of the global carbon budget. By this criterion, India has used far less than its fair share of the global carbon budget.