COP30 | India ask rich nations to pay climate finance in trillions

New Delhi: With climate negotiations entering the final phase at COP30 in Belem, India has asked the rich nations to provide climate finance “at a scale of trillions and not billions” while renewing its demand of making climate technologies free from “restrictive intellectual property barriers.”

At the ongoing UN climate summit in Brazil, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said the developed countries must reach net zero – not adding greenhouse gas to the environment - far earlier than current target dates.

“Developed countries must reach net zero far earlier than current target dates and deliver new, additional, and concessional climate finance at a scale of trillions, not billions…climate technology must be free from restrictive intellectual property barriers,” he said on Tuesday, flagging the need for affordable and accessible climate technology for a developing country like India.

Yadav is leading the Indian delegation at the high-level segment where negotiators from various countries will debate on the level of commitments on emission reduction and providing finance to climate vulnerable countries to adapt to and mitigate the consequences of climate change.

Asked when India would be submitting its revised NDC (nationally determined contribution on emission cuts till 2035), the minister said the plan was before the Union Cabinet for approval and was likely to be submitted by December.

NDCs are national climate plans under the Paris Agreement that set targets to cut emissions and adapt to climate change, guiding global efforts to limit warming below two degrees Celsius, preferably below 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.

Countries are now required to submit their third round of NDCs, referred to as "NDCs 3.0", that will spell out the emissions cut steps they would be taking between 2026-2035. Most of the nations have already submitted their revised NDCs before the starting of the COP30.

Yadav said India’s emission intensity declined by over 36% since 2005, and non-fossil sources accounted for more than half of India’s total electric power installed capacity (currently around 256 GW), an NDC target achieved five years ahead of our 2030 goal.

The minister also underscored the importance of the Nuclear Mission and Green Hydrogen Mission in advancing India’s path to Net Zero by 2070 and highlighted how over two billion plants were planted in the last 16 months to expand the carbon sink.

India would host the next year’s summit of the International Big Cat Alliance – a global effort to conserve seven big cats: tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, cheetah, puma and jaguar. Five of the seven animals are found in India.

Noting that big cats are regulators of ecological balance and sentinels of ecosystem health, the minister said, “Where big cats thrive, forests are healthier, grasslands regenerate, water systems function, and carbon is stored efficiently in living landscapes”.