NEW DELHI: India called on rich countries on Friday (Nov 4) to live up to their promise of providing US$100 billion in annual climate finance to developing nations and urged them to increase the amount for future years at next week’s UN climate conference.
In 2009, developed countries most responsible for global warming pledged to give US$100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing nations deal with its consequences.
The commitment has still not been met, generating mistrust and reluctance among some developing nations to accelerate their emissions reductions.
“The goal of US$100 billion per year of climate finance by 2020 and every year thereafter through till 2025 is yet to be achieved,” the government said in a statement ahead of the COP27 event in Egypt, which begins on Nov 6.
“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.”
India is the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States – though it is much lower down the rankings of emissions per capita, according to Our World in Data.
It has been ramping up its share of renewable energy, but coal continues to be India’s main fuel for power generation, as the country strives to provide energy for its 1.4 billion people using a cheaper fuel.
Two Indian government sources told Reuters earlier this week that India had already initiated steps such as meeting half of its energy demand from non-fossil fuels and building 500 gigawatts of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030.
“Developed countries also need to realise that overall costs have gone up, so the pledge to provide US$100 billion per year cannot be static. It needs to go up,” a government source had said.