‘Saw what you did’: India objects as COP29 rushes to pass $300 billion climate finance deal

Latest update:November 24, 2024 08:35 IST

In a historic intervention, India expressed deep disappointment over the new climate finance target, calling it “horribly bad” and stressing that it could not accept it.

Chandni Raina, a member of India’s negotiating team, speaks at the plenary session of the UN COP29 climate summit on November 24, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafique Maqbool)

India strongly opposed the adoption of a new climate finance deal at the UN Climate Action Summit (COP29) in Baku, calling the final outcome “extremely disappointing” after it was rushed through in the wee hours despite clear opposition from developing countries.

Just as the COP29 Presidency decided to adopt the New Collective Quantitative Target (NCQG), India emphasized that it had asked for a statement before its adoption. “We saw what you did. Staying silent and trying to ignore the parties’ statements is not befitting the UNFCCC system, and we want you to hear us. We strongly object to the unfair manner in which the text was adopted,” India said, drawing loud applause from other participants in the final plenary session.

The two-week UN conference ended early Sunday with a new climate finance target calling on developed countries to contribute $300 billion a year by 2035 to a broader target of $1.3 trillion a year by 2035 from all public and private sources. The target replaces developed countries’ previous annual commitment of US$100 billion in 2009, which remained largely unfulfilled. Negotiations continued late into the night, with the countries deadlocked until the eleventh hour.

“Trust is the basis of all actions and this incident shows the lack of trust and cooperation on the climate change issue that the whole world is facing, especially developing countries who are not taking responsibility for it,” said India delegate Chandni. Raina makes a national statement.

TOO SMALL, TOO FAR

In its historic speech at the closing plenary, India said developed countries had taken the lead to mobilize just $300 billion and that the target would only be achieved by 2035 – almost 11 years later – “too little, too far” . this amount will come from a variety of sources, including private and multilateral. In addition, a large part of this amount will come from mobilizing developing countries.

As part of the G77+China, India has demanded much higher ambitions from developed countries: at least $500 billion in government grants annually to achieve the $1.3 trillion target. Discussions have continued over the past three years, reaching a turning point at the UN Summit at which the goal was to be adopted.

However, the negotiations stalled after the draft documents indicated that the contribution of developed countries amounted to only 250-300 billion dollars a year. Tensions rose as representatives of the least developed countries (LDCs) and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) temporarily pulled out of the negotiations, saying their demands had been ignored.

In its statement, India also criticized developed countries for their reluctance to meet their commitments despite their historical responsibilities and high per capita emissions. He also emphasized the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities that guide climate action in vulnerable countries.

NEW FINANCIAL GOAL: OPTICAL ILLUSION

With developing countries at the forefront of increasing climate disasters, India stressed that this “paltry amount of $300 billion a year” will not achieve the beneficial climate action that is critical to the country’s survival and population growth. “We cannot accept this. this,” the spokesman repeated.

The statement raised concerns about sections of the new text that call for voluntary contributions from developing countries, as well as the mobilization of climate-related finance from multilateral development banks (MDBs). “This is very problematic. If we participate, developing countries will become major donors of climate finance. Including MDB financing in the overall goal is not progress towards the $100 billion target, but a redistribution of responsibilities from developed countries to developing countries,” India said.

Stressing that the final result does not instill confidence that the world will overcome the challenge of climate change, India said the result will hamper its ability to adapt to climate change, realize Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and seriously impact economic growth.