JOIN USLed by host India, Environment Ministers of the “BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China)” Nations on “Climate Change (CC)” Saturday expressed dismay over the poor contributions to the “Green Climate Fund (GCF)” by the developed world to enable “mitigation and adaptation” measures in developing countries.
While an “initial capitalization” of $30 billion for GCF was hoped for at the beginning of this year (2013), “only $ 7 billion is now in the GCF kitty”, Jayanthi Natarajan, India’s Minister of State for Environment and Forests, told a news conference in Chennai after the conclusion of the two-day 14th meeting of the BASIC Group on CC here.
Natarajan, joined by her counterparts Xie Zhenhua, (Vice-Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China), Carlos Augusto Klink (Brazil Ministry of Environment) and Alfred James Wills from (South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs), said the developed countries should also fulfill their commitment to provide $ 100 Billion per year by 2020 to the “GCF” for the purpose.
In the short-term, at least $30 billion was required without which “it is difficult to achieve the goals set,” Natarajan said, the BASIC group had hence at this meeting called for a “clear and transparent road-map” on how the finance for the GCF will be raised both in the short and long-terms.
Stating that the Chennai Ministerial meeting was the “first opportunity to consider the outcome of the Climate Change negotiations” that took place in Doha in December 2012, Natarajan said it once again “emphasised the unity of the BASIC Group Nations, G-77 countries plus China and all other developing countries” in voicing the concerns of the developing world in International talks under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.