Fulfil promises on climate finance, India to developed world

India on Tuesday asked the developed world to fulfil its commitment to provide $1 trillion in public finance and collaborate on technology, which is crucial for developing nations to fight climate change.

Disaster should not be a means to make profit, India emphasised in the final week of the United Nations climate talks, COP25, which is being hosted in Madrid on behalf of Chile.

The call was given by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, while addressing the high-level segment.

"I draw your attention to the very important issue of finance. The developed world promised $1 trillion in the last 10 years, but not even 2 per cent of it has materialised. It has to be public finance and there should be no double accounting," he said.

"The world, which benefited from carbon emissions that made them developed, must repay. Technology development and transfer at affordable costs is crucial for developing countries. If we are dealing with a disaster, nobody should profit from it.

"So, my proposal is to have more joint research and collaborations, grant finance made available for meeting the targets," Javadekar said.

With the ongoing two-week talks on several key negotiating items either stalled or facing resistance, Javadekar called for the developed world to demonstrate its commitment to global climate action that works for the developing nations.

"COP25 is an important step in our collective journey towards a clean, green and healthy planet. Market and non-market mechanisms play an important role. We expect that guidelines for Article 6 will ensure transition of Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol and provide the incentives and positive signals to the private sector which had invested in it," he said.

"We also urge for supporting the vulnerable communities worldwide with a strong Warsaw International Mechanism for loss and damage with provision for financial support. This is the time for ownership and this is the time for responsible action.

"India has and will continue to do its bit. We expect commensurate multilateral action with developed countries taking the lead," Javadekar said.

Saying that it is time for reflection and assessment, the minister said, "As we near the end of pre-2020 period, it is time to look in the mirror. Has the developed world delivered on its promises? Unfortunately, annexed countries have not met their Kyoto Protocol targets. Neither their NDCs reflect ambitions, nor have they shown the willingness to enhance their commitments.

"I propose that we have three more years to fulfil the pre-2020 commitments till the global stocktaking takes places for bridging emission gaps."

Dwelling on the country's climate actions, Javadekar said India has reduced emissions intensity of GDP by 21 per cent and is on track to achieve the goal of 35 per cent emissions reduction as promised in Paris (2015).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a 175 gigawatt (GW) target for renewables under the Paris Agreement.

"We have already achieved 83 GW. The Prime Minister has subsequently increased the target to 450 GW at the recent UN Climate Action Summit. We are simultaneously progressing on solar, biomass and wind energy.

"We have put carbon tax on coal production at the rate of $6 per tonne. Even with 36 parties represented in the Parliament, we could achieve this unanimously," Javadekar said.

He said a commercial flight was operated on 100 per cent biofuel and "we are targeting blending of 20 per cent ethanol in petrol by 2030. We have leapfrogged from Bharat Standard IV to Bharat Standard VI for vehicle emission norms and from April 1, 2020, all vehicles will be Bharat Standard VI compliant".

"There is also a strong push for the use of e-vehicles by introducing multiple policy interventions and incentives.

"We have provided 80 million LPG gas connections, replacing conventional firewood cooking stoves. Our cooling action plan and adaptation plan are also working well and we will achieve our targets.

"We have promised creation of additional carbon sinks of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon equivalent through increasing green cover. In the last five years, our green cover has increased by 15,000 sq km. We are undertaking special projects like urban forests, school nursery, agroforestry, and water and fodder augmentation in the forest area," Javadekar said.

(Vishal Gulati is in Madrid to cover COP25. He can be contacted at vishal.g@.in)

( With inputs from IANS )