India advocates for a Global Stocktake to identify and address gaps in climate funding, emphasizing the importance of international collaboration in addressing climate change challenges – EQ
In Short : India has called for a Global Stocktake to address gaps in climate funding. This initiative emphasizes the need for a comprehensive assessment of international efforts to combat climate change, ensuring that funding is adequate, equitable, and directed toward the areas that need it most. By advocating for a thorough review, India aims to strengthen global climate finance mechanisms, facilitating more effective and impactful investments in climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives worldwide.
In Detail : New Delhi : The first-ever Global Stocktake should “accentuate” the gaps in funding between the scale of the requirement in developing nations and the available public and additional funding, India has said.
The Global Stocktake is a two-year review by the United Nations to evaluate progress toward the Paris Agreement goals. Started at COP26 in Glasgow, this process will conclude at COP28 in Dubai.
In a submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) outlining its expectations for the Global Stocktake, India emphasised that it should identify obstacles to the support provided by developed countries in terms of finance, technology deployment and transfer, and capacity building for the developing nations.
India called for an assessment under the Global Stocktake process to examine the gaps in the efforts of the developed countries to control and mitigate their emissions, considering the differentiated responsibilities outlined in the Paris Agreement.
The country pointed out that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had previously highlighted “significant gaps in pre-2020 action”.
The IPCC had indicated that the developed countries must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25-40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and revisit their 2020 targets no later than 2014.
India also underscored that Annex I countries — a group of nations that are part of the Annex I to the UNFCCC and considered to be more economically developed and industrialised — had only reduced emissions by 5 per cent between 2008-2012.
Annex I countries are generally expected to take the lead in combating climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the UNFCCC Secretariat’s assessment, despite committing to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 18 per cent relative to 1990 levels between 2013 and 2020, the actual achievement is only 13 per cent.
India argued that these commitments from the developed world fell significantly short of what is needed, based on scientific recommendations. It called for the Global Stocktake outcome to provide details of support from the developed countries concerning technology development and transfer.
It aims to assess how much technology transfer has already occurred and identify the gaps remaining. A similar process should be applied to capacity building support.
Regarding global finance goals, India suggested that the Global Stocktake should assess the overall impact of financial support provided to the developing countries and identify any gaps in such support.
India stressed that the Global Stocktake should not solely focus on assessing the gaps in mitigation support but also include a review of the gaps in the support provided for adaptation to ensure parity between adaptation and mitigation efforts.