India has Taken Lead to raise the issue of Climate Finance at International Forums

Source: The post is based on the article “India has Taken Lead to raise the issue of Climate Finance at International Forums” published in PIB on 28th July 2022.

What is the News?

The Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change has informed Lok Sabha about the efforts made by India to raise the issue of Climate Finance at International Forums.

What is Climate Finance?

Climate finance is money paid by developed countries (which are responsible for most of the historic emissions) to developing countries to help them pay for emissions reduction measures and adaptation.

What has been the state of climate finance support from developed to developing countries?

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 mobilize US$100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of the developing countries. 

The fourth Biennial Assessment of the Standing Committee on Finance of the UNFCCC has stated that the total public financial support reported by developed country Parties in 2020 amounted to US$ 45.4 billion in 2017 and US$ 51.8 billion in 2018. This shows that developed countries have not reached their commitment.

How has India raised the Climate Finance issue globally?

India has been taking the lead in raising the issue of climate finance at the UNFCCC and in other multilateral forums. 

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.

Moreover, India also has several issues with respect to the definition of climate finance. For instance, India has always maintained that 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.

India’s efforts in Combating Climate Change

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

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

India has contributed only around 4% of global cumulative emissions from 1850 to 2019, despite being home to around one-sixth of humanity.