New Delhi: India plans to leverage its climate commitments to pitch for grants and concessional loans, instead of investments for the Global South, at the upcoming climate negotiations in Baku, two people aware of the matter said. This comes on the backdrop of the global loss and damage fund agreed upon at the Egypt accord and operationalised at COP28 failing to gain traction.
“Our position is grant-based and concessional finance in terms of NCQG (new collective quantified goal, or climate funding target for developing nations). India’s stance would be to get as much of grant and concessional loan,” the first of the two people quoted above said on condition of anonymity. “We don’t want big figures as investment in NCQG, but they (developed nations) want to push for investment.”
The Indian team, led by Union minister of state for environment, forest and climate change Kirti Vardhan Singh, will also push for finalizing the rules for transfer of carbon credits to meet climate targets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, the people said on the condition of anonymity. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Azerbaijan’s capital city will see negotiations ahead of the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to be held from 11 to 24 November.
The first person cited above said that India is not against mobilizing investments for climate change. “Suppose $1 trillion will be required in the form of investment. Who is going to invest? Businesses. Are they (the developed nations) going to ensure that multinationals will invest here? No, they say companies are independent, and autonomous. They don’t have control over them.”
India would like the NCQG to be finalized as a firm commitment by the developed countries, which will help decide the next round of India’s climate pledges under the nationally determined contributions (NCDs). “We are supposed to submit it next year before COP30, although there is a decision to do so nine months before the next COP.”
Under the Paris Agreement, countries should agree to the NCQG for financial support for developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change before 2025. This is a key task for COP29 in Azerbaijan. Developing countries require up to $1.5 trillion a year for their unique climate needs and net zero transition, according to various estimates. But the loss and damage fund negotiated at COP27 has failed to take off after being operationalised at COP28.
India would like the NCQG to be finalized as a firm commitment by the developed countries, which will help decide the next round of India’s climate pledges under the nationally determined contributions.
According to UNFCCC, as of September, a total of $702 million has been pledged to the fund by 23 contributors against at least $100 billion by all developed nations. As of January, there are 37 countries that are considered developed economies by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Vaibhav Pratap Singh, Executive Director at Climate & Sustainability Initiative (CSI), said that the climate finance target for developed nations to provide $100 billion annually to developing countries by 2020, set during the 15th edition of this annual event, has yet to be met. “These targets, and the associated delivery mechanisms, are crucial,” he said. “If not properly structured, the costs could become exorbitant, and make projects like renewable energy, which require high initial investments, prohibitive to be built in many parts of the developing world.”
Queries emailed to spokespeople and the secretary of MoEFCC on Thursday remained unanswered at press time. New conditions from developed countries To be sure, the actual climate action funding requirement, however, could be several times higher than the estimates of $1-1.5 trillion. The UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance, based on its assessment of NDCs, estimates that a total of $5.8-5.9 trillion will be needed by 2030 to cover the needs of 153 developing countries
Originally Published in Livemint
