COP27: Finance and technology transfer to developing countries is key to fight apocalyptic changes

Sharm-el-Sheikh: India has asked the world leaders that access to Finance and Technology in developing countries is a must to protect the earth and ourselves from apocalyptic changes.   

Raising concerns over the climate finance, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav said, “The commitment made by the developed countries to mobilize $100 billion from diverse sources by 2020 was a meager amount and remains unachieved till now. 

“While we take note of the work carried out by the Standing Committee on Finance, there is a need to further work in arriving at a meaningful definition of climate finance” the Minister said at a High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Finance at COP 27,

“The current needs of developing countries are estimated to be in the order of trillions” he added.

Talking about the transparency in the financial system, the Minister said, “there is no understanding of what really comprises climate finance. Transparency and Trust are the backbones of all multilateral discussions”.

 “There are several estimates of climate finance. The OECD estimates the flows to be USD83.3 billion in 2020 and USD79.9 billion in 2018, while Oxfam estimates the mobilized amount to be USD19-22.5 billion per year in 2017-18. Other estimates from UNFCCC, are USD45.4 billion in 2017 and USD51.8 billion in 2018” he said. 

Yadav also asked the developed countries to clear the definition of climate finance so that transparency will be promoted for furthering constructive deliberations.

“While we take note of the work carried out by the Standing Committee on Finance, there is a need to further work in arriving at a meaningful definition of climate finance” he noted.

The Minister said, “The new collective quantified goal for the period post-2025 needs to be an ambitious mobilization target at grant/concessional term. 

“We require an ambitious flow of financial resources from various sources- public and private with the developed countries playing a pivotal role in incentivizing flows to the developing countries so that finance-the key means of implementation- is at grant/concessional rates” he said.

“The Nationally Determined Contributions and the Needs determination reports could be a good basis to estimate the requirement. We are also of the view that action to improve the functioning of the financial mechanism to enable access is also critical” he added.

“There is only a small window of opportunity to rectify a problem that has accumulated over the centuries. It is really time for concerted action if we want to curtail temperature rise to sustain life” he concluded.