Sharm-El Sheikh: Developing countries should be provided their fair share of the full carbon budget and it can be done by ‘monetising the carbon debt of the developed countries, said Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav at the ministerial meeting of Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) in the side-line of COP27, Egypt.
Yadav said “at COP27, we must once again impress on our developed country partners that actions are the key and not mere promises. One pledge after another, with several such pledges per COP, is not necessarily fruitful”
“India holds that all countries are entitled to their fair share of the global carbon budget and must stay within this in their cumulative emission, adding that physical access to the remaining carbon budget must be provided by developed countries reaching net zero much earlier than their current target dates” the Minister said.
The Minister said, “In climate action, no sector, no fuel source and no gas should be singled out for action”
Yadav added that in the spirit of the Paris Agreement, countries will do what is suitable as per their national circumstances.
Yadav’s remark came hours after the US, Japan and other countries pledged to mobilise USD 20 billion to help Indonesia, the world’s fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, to move away from coal and accelerate efforts in the renewable energy sector.
The pact, formally known as a Just Energy Transition Partnership, was unveiled at the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Bali, Indonesia.
“Our low-carbon development strategy details, across seven sectors, all the actions that we are currently pursuing, in order to enable us to achieve our NDC goals by 2030” he said.
The Minister added that, “Our initiatives include the continued expansion of renewables and the strengthening of the grid, rational utilization of our fossil fuel resources, promoting e-vehicles through major initiatives, steady increase of bio-fuel blending in petrol and diesel, and expansion of our energy efficiency across sectors and drawing in more industrial units.
“We have a visionary initiative in green hydrogen as the fuel of the future” he said.
Talking about the submission of India’sLong-Term Low-Carbon Development Strategy to the UNFCCC, the minister said we have already brought many of these initiatives to the stage of implementation. Our annual financial budget this year, for 2022-23 provides a number of examples of the efforts we are making, using our own resources in the absence of climate finance.
Recognizing the critical role of solar power, Yadav said, “the budget has sharply increased the production linked incentive for domestic integrated solar manufacturing facilities from last year’s allocation of Rs4500 crores to Rs, 19,500 crores.
To drive the wide range of the proposed initiatives across the range of environment, sustainability and climate action, the budget announced that government would issue sovereign Green Bonds, as a part of government’s overall market borrowings in 2022-23, for mobilizing resources for green infrastructure.
“The proceeds are to flow to public sector projects which help in reducing the carbon intensity of the economy. For encouraging important sunrise activity such as climate action, the government is to promote thematic funds for blended finance with the government share being limited to 20 per cent and the funds being managed by private fund managers” he said.
Explaining the role of BASIC, he said that, “Unfortunately, promises, either for 2030 or 2050, have been the dominant narrative that developed countries have sought to establish”
“At this COP, we have been active in promoting action in key areas of relevance particularly to the majority of the vulnerable populations of the world. Adaptation and loss and damage have been of particular importance to us in this regard” he added.
