In the midst of mounting calls for affluent countries to pay poorer nations most susceptible to climate change, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP27, officially kicked off on Sunday in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The assembly of close to 200 nations from November 6–18 will be dominated by the rising financial requirement of almost all poor nations to deal not only with current effects but also those that are already taking lives and wrecking economies.

India will seek clarity on climate finance while emphasising the mantra of ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ (LiFE) at the 27th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP27) at Egypt’s Sharm-El-Sheikh, starting November 6. 

The Indian delegation will be led by Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav. More than 45,000 individuals have registered their participation at COP27. Over 120 heads of states and governments will attend the summit, including US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and French President Emmanuel Macron. 

Loans from developed countries get passed off as climate-related aid: India

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said that the absence of a definition of what constitutes climate finance enables developed countries to greenwash their finances and pass off loans as climate-related aid. 

 “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,” an official statement by India’s Union Environment Ministry said. 

India to push developed countries for a new global climate finance target

In 2009, at COP29 in Copenhagen, the developed countries committed to jointly finance $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle climate change. In contrast, the total financial support by developed countries was $45.4 billion in 2017 and $51.8 billion in 2018, according to the fourth Biennial Assessment of the Standing Committee on Finance of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 

The developing countries including India will also push rich countries to agree to a new global climate finance target – also known as the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG). The NCQG should be in trillions, the developing countries say, as the costs of addressing and adapting to climate change have grown. 

WATCH | WION Climate Tracker: COP27 to test resolve of world battling war, inflation

“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 Research Institute, and former climate negotiator under UNFCCC, was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India. 

India will also invite all COP27 participants to join the LiFE movement – “Lifestyle for Environment”, a pro-people and pro-planet effort that seeks to shift the world wasteful consumption to mindful and deliberate utilization of natural resources.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.