The COP27 climate summit is being held in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. India is among the 190 participants in the meeting. AFP
The United Nations climate change summit – COP27 – has opened in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. More than 120 world leaders will attend the meeting, which will involve talks and negotiations on climate action.
While United States president Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, and new United Kingdom prime minister Rishi Sunak will attend the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be travelling to Egypt. The Indian delegation to the 27th Session of Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27) from 6 November to 18 November will be led by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.
What will be India’s role at the meet? What will be the issues it is likely to bring up? We take a look.
Also read: Climate change: Global collaboration holds key to sustainabilityClimate finance
According to the Union environment ministry, India looks forward to substantial progress in discussions related to climate finance and clarity on its definition.
“As it is a saying that ‘what gets measured gets done’, more clarity is needed on the definition of climate finance for the developing countries to be able to accurately assess the extent of finance flows for climate action,” it said in a statement.
The absence of a definition allows developed countries to greenwash their finances and pass off loans as climate-related aid.
At COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries had committed to jointly mobilise USD 100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle climate change, but they have miserably failed in doing so. India, along with other developing countries, will ramp up pressure on rich nations to deliver on this promise.
According to the fourth Biennial Assessment of the Standing Committee on Finance of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the total public financial support reported by developed countries in October 2020 amounted to USD 45.4 billion in 2017 and USD 51.8 billion in 2018.
India will play a key role in holding rich countries accountable for the promises on climate action made to developing and poor nations. AP
Bringing up NCQG
Developing countries, including India, will push rich countries to agree to a new global climate finance target – also known as the new collective quantified goal on climate finance (NCQG) — which they say should be in trillions as the costs of addressing and adapting to climate change have grown.
“The figure of USD 100 billion for developing countries was agreed upon much before the Paris Agreement was signed. Based on the Nationally determined contributions (NDCs), the total cumulative financing requirements of the developing world is anything in the range of USD 5.8-5.9 trillion till 2030,” RR Rashmi, distinguished fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and former climate negotiator under UNFCCC told news agency PTI.
Discussing LiFE
At the summit, India will also discuss the mantra of Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), coined by Modi, reports news agency ANI.
On 20 October, the PM launched the Mission LiFe movement in Gujarat. Envisaged by Modi, it is expected to be an India-led global mass movement that will nudge individual and collective action to protect and preserve the environment.
The focus of Mission LiFe is to emphasise the fact that climate change is an issue that goes beyond policymaking. “Mission LiFE makes the fight against climate change democratic, in which everyone can contribute within their capacity. It inspires us to do all that can be done in our everyday life to protect the environment. It believes that the environment can be protected by making changes in our lifestyle,” the PM had said.
“Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” and circular economy has been a part of the Indian lifestyle for years, Modi said, adding that Mission LiFE would “encompass every lifestyle related to the conservation of nature, which our ancestors adopted, and that can be made a part of our lifestyle today”, according to a report in Mint.
“Encouraging an environmental sense in our society is the need of the hour. An easy mantra to cultivate it in us is Mission Life, which encompasses adopting environmentally friendly lifestyles,” Bhupendra Yadav wrote in a blog in The Times of India.
There will be a pavilion in Sharm-El-Sheikh on the LiFE movement, which will showcase India’s achievements in climate action.Tech assistance
India will seek clarity on technology transfer from developed countries. It will support initiatives that provide technical assistance to developing countries for averting and minimising loss and damage due to the impacts of climate change and insist on an institutional network to realise these, reports The Hindu.
Climate compensation
On the first day of COP27, 190 participants including India agreed to include funding for loss and damage in the agenda of the summit. This is a significant step in charting a mechanism to support poor nations that are impacted by climate change because of emissions from rich nations, reports The Times of India.
“We have always been in support of bringing ‘loss and damage’ finance to COP agenda. India will contribute effectively for devising a mechanism in the interest of developing countries,” Yadav said.
At COP26, rich nations had blocked a proposal for a loss and damage financing body.
With inputs from agencies
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