India to seek clarity on 'climate finance' at COP27

Climate financing remains a contentious issue at each of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since COP15 in 2009

India would seek clarity on the definition of “climate finance” and push for establishment of a mechanism to institutionalise “loss and damage assessment” at the upcoming UN climate summit that would kick start on Sunday at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt.

Union Environment Minister Bhupeder Yadav who leads the Indian delegation said more clarity was 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.

This remains a contentious issue at each of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since the Copenhagen summit in 2009 (COP15) when the world leaders pledged a goal of providing $100 billion of climate finance per year by 2020 and every year thereafter through 2025.

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"What should be qualified as climate finance, has not been agreed upon universally. Due to lack of common understanding, several estimates of what has flown as climate finance are available,” said Union Environment Ministry Secretary Leena Nandan.

While rich nations simply renamed several existing grants as climate finance, the developing world including India insisted that climate finance should be over and above the existing resources. This is a knotty issue that is yet to be sorted out.

“India looks forward to substantial progress on the discussions related to climate finance and clarity on its definition. As there 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,” Yadav said.

“While the Standing Committee on finance will submit a report on the various definitions, we hope to have good deliberations on this to arrive at a common understanding. The interpretation of the term must be in line with the commitments made by the countries on climate finance in the Convention and its Paris Agreement.”

New Delhi would also press for a substantial enhancement of the ambition to ensure adequate resource flow under the new quantified goal post-2024.

Three other climate finance related items on the agenda are mitigation work programme, sourcing of adaptation finance and loss and damage assessment. “There is uncertainty on the mechanism on how to quantify and measure the loss and claim damage,” Nandan said.

The existing financial mechanisms, like GEF, GCF and Adaptation Fund, under the Convention have not been able to mobilise or deliver funds for loss and damage due to climate change.

These mechanisms are under-funded; accessing funding is cumbersome and time-consuming; and most of the funding is for mitigation. Adaptation funding is highly inadequate and loss and damage funding is perhaps none at all.

India will support the Egyptian Presidency, for a plan of action that answers the needs of developing countries. Adaptation and loss and damage are two issues at the centre of attention, and progress on these two issues will complement each other.

The Egyptian Presidency of COP27, which is also a member of the Like Minded Developing Countries, has named COP27 as the COP of “Implementation”. India welcomes this step as over the last twelve months the world has seen the widening gap between the statements by developed countries made at COP 26 in Glasgow and the reality of their actions.