COP27 | India Insists on Higher Global Climate Finance Target by 2024

What’s in today’s article:

• Background (About COP15, Climate Finance, etc.)
• News Summary (About COP27, India’s views)

Why in news?

• At the ongoing UN climate summit COP27, India has stressed that developing countries require substantive enhancement in climate finance to meet their ambitious goals and developed countries need to lead the mobilisation of resources.

Background:

• In 2009, the Conference of Parties (COP15) was held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• At the conference, developed countries had committed to jointly mobilise $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle the effects of climate change.
  • Rich countries, however, have repeatedly failed in delivering this finance.
• According to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), developed countries mobilised $52.5 billion in 2013.
• After dropping to $44.6 billion in 2015, the finance flow has steadily increased.
• In 2020, the developed countries raised $83.3 billion, a jump from $80.4 billion in 2019.

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Climate Finance:

• The standing committee on Finance of the OECD has estimated that resources in the range of $6 trillion to $11 trillion are required till 2030 to meet the targets set by developing countries in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
  • NDCs are national plans to limit global temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• At this year’s COP being held in the Egypt, developed countries are expected to push developing nations to further intensify their climate plans.
• On the other hand, the developing countries would seek commitment to finance and technology needed to address climate change and resulting disasters.

News Summary:

• The 27^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is currently being held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. 
  • The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention.
  • The climate change process revolves around the annual sessions of the COP.
• It meets every year, unless the parties decide otherwise.

Highlights of the ongoing COP27:

• At a high-level ministerial dialogue on NCQG at COP27, India highlighted that climate actions to meet the NDC targets require financial, technological, and capacity-building support from developed countries.
• Developing countries, including India, are pushing rich countries to agree to a new global climate finance target—also known as the new collective quantified goal on climate finance (NCQG).
• The developing countries say that the new finance target should be in trillions as the costs of addressing and adapting to climate change have grown.
• India said that a more structured and targeted approach needs to be adopted to enable the successful fulfilment of the mandate ahead of 2024.
• India also seeks clarity on the definition of climate finance—the absence of which allows developed countries to greenwash their finances and pass off loans as climate-related aid.