COP27: India to argue for greater climate finance commitments, Environment Ministry says

India will argue for greater climate finance commitments from developed nations post-2024 at the COP27 meeting at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt over Nov. 6-18, the country's Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry said Nov. 4.

A goal of $100 billion/year of climate finance by 2020 is yet to be met, with latest estimates putting developed world commitments at 80% of the total.

"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," the ministry said.

Of the $80 billion developed countries mobilized in 2018, $12.3 billion were grants, the rest loans. While the World Bank and other development banks provide low cost concessional loans to developing countries, around half of total loans provided for climate finance are still not below market rates, according to the Stockholm Environmental Institute.

"While the promised amount must be reached as quickly as possible, there is a need now to substantially enhance the ambition to ensure adequate resource flow under the new quantified goal post-2024," the ministry said.

A key clause in India's National Determined Contribution, updated in August, is to mobilize "new and additional funds from developed countries" to implement mitigation and adaptation actions in view of the resource gap.

India is the third-largest emitter of CO2 in the world and emissions are seen rising in the years ahead on the back of its rapidly growing economy.

In a reference scenario, S&P Global Commodity Insights Global Integrated Energy Model (GIEM) forecasts India's carbon emissions rising from 2.41 billion mt/year in 2022 to 2.89 billion mt/year in 2030, rising further to 3.37 billion mt/year in 2045.

Adaptation, loss & damage

Existing financial mechanisms under the UN's climate convention had failed to deliver on two key focus areas of the upcoming talks -- adaptation and loss & damage, the ministry said.

"These mechanisms are under-funded; accessing funding is cumbersome and time-consuming; and most of the funding is for mitigation," it said. "Adaptation funding is highly inadequate and loss and damage funding is perhaps none at all."

This had prompted the G7 and China to propose an agenda item on loss and damage finance, it said.

"On the Global Goal on Adaptation, there needs to be significant progress on actions, indicators and metrics," the ministry said. "There must not be any hidden agenda of mitigation, especially in the form of nature-based solutions, in the name of co-benefits."

India's NDC aims to cut emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2005 levels, and reach 50% installed generation capacity from non-fossil fuel-based resources also by 2030.

The long-term goal is to reach net-zero by 2070.

Related: What will India do?