Ahead of the UN Paris Climate Meet, India has received Germany's support in demanding billions of dollar of fund flow from the rich nations to tackle the dangerous consequences of climate change.
A Indo-German joint statement has underlined the importance of climate finance and recalled the annual commitment of $100 billion from private and public sources by 2020, developed nations made in the past on providing financial resources to the developing world. But the delivery is far from satisfactory.
Mobilisation of domestic and new and additional funds from developed countries to implement the mitigation and adaptation actions in view of the resource required and the resource gap, is one of the key points of Indias intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) that received a pat from Germany on Monday.
“India and Germany recall the leading role of developed countries and the need for these countries to enhance their support for mitigation and adaptation actions in developing countries,” says the joint statement on climate change released on Monday after the summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Six years ago in Copenhagen, rich nations pledged to provide $100 billion every year to the developing world to adapt and mitigate to the changes triggered by climate change.
But there is very little fund flow as things remained mostly on paper. Climate finance, says the statement, would play a key role beyond 2020 and would be an important part of the 2015 agreement. But it remained the major sticking point in negotiations for having a successful deal at Paris. The last round of negotiations, in Bonn last month, ended without managing to zero in on the key components of a deal in the absence of a consensus on climate finance, as opinions are divided on who would fund how much in aiding the developing world. Asked about India’s stand on international climate finance, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar evaded a clear answer last week. But he dropped hints that successful implementation of India’s INDC would rely on the fund flow from rich nations. India and Germany underscored that adaptation must be a central part of the Paris agreement though many industrialised countries wanted to stress on the mitigation measures only. In addition, both will enhance cooperation in climate risk insurance.