Exact definition of climate finance needed, inequality gap on tech has to be closed: Bhupender Yadav

Climate finance refers to the investments that are needed to tackle climate change by way of either preventive steps to reduce emissions, known as mitigation or preparatory steps to tackle its impacts, known as adaptation. This funding can be local, national or transnational, drawn from public, private or alternative sources, as per the United Nations.

Yadav’s comments come a day after Azerbaijan, the host of this year’s Conference of Parties 29 (COP) summit, the annual United Nations climate conference, announced that it will launch a new fund to support developing countries in their actions against climate change. This year’s summit will see negotiations on finalising an agreement on climate finance that will help developing countries fight climate change.

Currently, developed nations are obliged to raise $100 billion annually to support developing nations. However, as per the Paris Agreement, this ceiling has to be revised after 2025, hence the negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan later this year.

Yadav, while addressing the plenary session on ‘India’s pathway to Net-Zero’, also added that developing countries have significant needs that they have to fulfil and thus common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CDBR-RC) principle must be the basis for talks.

Yadav said that even though India is the world’s third or fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, its contributions will still be lesser if the emissions are seen from a per-capital perspective. He said that India is the third largest emitter despite accounting for 17 per cent of the world’s population.

“If we combine the populations of all developed countries, the emissions from India, which accounts for 17 per cent of the world’s population, would still be far lesser in comparison,” he said.

“That is why developing countries always say that they have significant needs and thus common but,” Yadav said. The CBDR-RC refers to the differing responsibilities of developed and developing countries towards mitigating climate change, as the former have contributed more to historical industrial emissions.

The union minister outlined initiatives that the government has started to achieve its net-zero emissions target by 2070. “We are working on strengthening our renewable grids so that our capacity is strengthened. We are also strengthening technologies for low-carbon growth. The transport sector contributes a lot to emissions and we are working on making it environment friendly. In the urban sector, we are working on making it sustainable through sustainable designs, efficiency and sustainability in constructions,” said Yadav.

Further, he said, “We have made policy interventions in improving fuel efficiency. In NCR, there has been a switch to PNG. Then there has been the promotion of green hydrogen and empowering of medium and small manufacturing enterprises. World over, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are also carrying ahead the voice of the global south.”