India raises concerns over commitment on $100 bn climate fund

Berlin: India today sought clarity on ways to mobilise the targeted Global Climate Fund of $100 billion per year by 2020, saying the developed countries are “nowhere” near the goal and this raises question on the credibility of the commitment.[caption id=“attachment_2176901” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar. PTI[/caption] India also said that all countries must know the quantum of international financial assistance as they are in the process of preparing Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up under the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010 and developed countries had committed to raise $100 billion each year by 2020 to help developing countries deal with climate change. “On the sources of fund – of course, it can be from a variety of sources, but the goal agreed to was $100 billion per year by 2020. The fact of the matter is that we are nowhere near it,” Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said while making an intervention at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin. “We are below fast start finance targets too. The reason why we want clarity on the flow of finance is because of these inaccuracies – there is no clarity as to how these goals will be reached. Moreover, it raises a question on the credibility of our commitments and the sincerity of the whole exercise,” he said. The minister said that India is putting across the issue of climate fund in the interest of the developing world as a huge amount of public and private funds are involved. “As there are no free lunches, there won’t be free speeches either, if finance is not committed,” he said, adding that every climate action has a cost and the world must think as to who would pay the cost. The minister also said that the countries should make the polluters pay rather than the poor. “Instead of making the polluters to pay, we should not end up with a formula where we make the poor pay,” he said. On investment towards adaptation measures, the minister said that public resources have to address the concerns of adaptions as private companies in developing countries are not coming forward to invest. “The primacy of public resources is very important in this scheme of things. For instance, do we expect private investment for adaptation, which is a dire need of the developing countries? Where is the data?” “It does not happen in my country and I have heard this from many colleagues of developing countries also that private sector does not come forward for investment in adaptation. Therefore, public resources will have to address these concerns,” the minister said. On private funding towards adaptation, Javadekar said, “Where is the mention of leveraging, or creating conditions in the developing countries in the decision texts? Private sector in my country also makes investments – do we count it as international climate change assistance, or flows?” The minister also said that the Official Development Assistance – pegged at 0.7 percent of the GDP of developed countries, which were already committed – cannot be termed as new and additional fund towards GCF. On the issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of green technologies, he said, “The suggestion is not to dismantle the regime, but to make climate-friendly technologies available to the developing countries at affordable costs by paying the costs through GCF.” The most important and cross-cutting issues for the 2015 climate agreement are common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) and provision of finance, he said. Assuring that India will continue to play a proactive, constructive and responsible role in global negotiations, Javadekar said that the country will work with the international community to find practical, pragmatic and equitable solutions to climate change. “This is not out of any external pressure, but the pressure is of climate change and that of aspirations of future generations,” he said. The minister further said that the immediate action is finalising the draft decision text for Pre-2020 actions by the developed countries in the Bonn session in June 2015. He appealed to the global community to incorporate the concerns of developing countries in terms of their need for development and meeting their basic national priorities. “This has already been accepted in Lima and we must incentivise the parties specially the poor states to enable ambitious action on their part,” he said. India also said that all the principles and provisions of the 1992 Convention should apply to the new architecture of 2015 climate pact. “We must discuss these issues in greater detail in the coming months to enhance our understanding and articulation of these problems,” the minister said. The UN climate conference, to be held in Paris from 30 November to 11 December this year, is tasked with finalising a global agreement designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions. PTI