BAKU: With countries expected to pledge their new climate action target by February next year, India on Tuesday asked the rich nations to show leadership in mitigation actions by not just advancing their net-zero targets but also by providing enough carbon space for developing countries to develop.
“The high carbon emission development pathways of the Global North (developed countries) in the past have left very little carbon space for the Global South (developing countries). However, our growth trajectories for fulfilling the primary needs of sustainable development and poverty eradication cannot be compromised,” said the country’s minister of state (MoS) for environment and climate change, Kirti Vardhan Singh, while delivering India’s national statement here at the high-level segment of the UN climate talks (COP29).
He said, “Despite not contributing to the problem, we in the Global South are bearing a huge financial burden on account of climate actions for mitigation on the one hand, and losses and damages caused by climate change on the other, thus severely limiting our capacity to meet our developmental needs.”
Referring to the most critical issue of the new post-2025 finance goal, Singh said, “What we decide here on New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) must be founded on the principle of climate justice. The decisions must be ambitious and unambiguous, taking into consideration the evolving needs and priorities of the developing countries, and their commitment to sustainable development and eradication of poverty.”
“We all need to appreciate that huge costs are being imposed on a developing country like ours for undertaking the climate actions,” he said.
India, in sync with the demand of most of the developing countries, had during one of its interventions last week asked the developed countries to commit to provide and mobilise at least $1.3 trillion every year till 2030 through grants, concessional finance and non-debt-inducing support, without subjecting developing nations to ‘growth-inhibiting conditionalities in the provision of finance’. The country emphasised that the support must cater to the ‘evolving needs and priorities of developing countries’.
Singh also underlined that the raising of climate ambitions to align with Paris temperature goals has to be preceded by free availability of green technologies, producing them on scale and availability of finance for their deployment, particularly in the Global South.
“On the contrary, some of the developed countries have resorted to unilateral measures making climate actions more difficult for the Global South. The emergent situation we are in, there is no option but to break all barriers to flow of technology, finances and capacity to the Global South,” said the minister.