COP29: India champions the cause of the global South in historic move of rejecting climate finance outcome | India News – Times of India

BAKU/NEW DELHI: India’s historical position on the rejection of the climate financing outcome COP29 Sunday provoked similar reactions from other developing countries and experts, who saw India as a champion of the whole Global South.
The moment came during the last plenary meeting when the Indian negotiator, Chandni Rainaled the charge against what was presented as the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T” and pointed out gaps in the document. Belém, a Brazilian city, will host the COP30 next year. Experts pointed out that the move to accept a symbolic financial pledge was purely intended to prevent the collapse of negotiations in the Azerbaijani capital.
Raina takes on the rich countries without mincing words: ‘Developed countries are taking the lead for a mobilization target of only USD 300 billion, and that target must also not be achieved until 2035, which is almost eleven years later, and That also means that there should be a wide variety of sources. So it should be private, it should be multilateral, and there will be large amounts of it left that can be left for the developing countries to mobilize themselves.”
“We are disappointed with the outcome, which clearly highlights the unwillingness of parties in developed countries to fulfill their responsibilities,” she said, underscoring that the outcome of COP29 will undermine the ability of developing countries to adapt adapting to climate change will further influence, which will have a major impact on their lives NDC ambition and its implementation.
Speakers from other developing countries, including Bolivia and Nigeria, took a similar stance, objecting to the final outcome of climate finance during their remarks after the gavel.
“COP29 has failed to deliver on its core mandate: binding commitments, real financing and meaningful action to curb climate change. climate crisis. With the world needing more than $1.3 trillion in climate financing by 2030, agreeing on a $300 billion target by 2035, without a clear indication of what this financing will entail, is a hollow gesture, a mere fig leaf for inaction.” said Arunabha Ghosh. CEO, Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
Ghosh, along with former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and other experts, who sought an urgent review of the UN climate talks process, pointed out that the outcome, which encourages developing countries to make additional contributions, including through South -South cooperation, undermines the climate. the principle of equality. “Instead of providing climate finance, COP29 introduced a new principle: I pollute, you pay,” he said.
“India rightly highlighted this inadequacy and the adoption process. Although the outcome reflects the current state of geopolitics and domestic politics in some countries of the world, developing countries have done well together. Efforts to mobilize many more resources for climate change must continue,” said Manjeev Puri, former Indian Ambassador to the European Union and a leading peer, TERI.
Pointing to other aspects of the outcome, amid general disappointment, Aarti Khosla, director of Climate Trends, noted that the finer elements, such as setting aside funds for least developed countriesis, however, a slight progress. “Climate is a matter of life and death for some countries. There is also language in the text that refers to a special assessment of access to finance by 2030 – when it will be clear how much of the funds consist of grants, concessional loans and the degree of dependence on private financing,” she said.
Khosla underlined that the devil, as always, is in the details, saying: “It is difficult to find positive developments in these very difficult negotiations. Baku made a deal but left no one happy; everyone has stayed inside to keep the spirits up. of multilateralism.”
The Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group on Climate Change called the COP29 outcome not only a failure but also a betrayal, saying: “The bulldozed New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) is a striking symbol of this failure.”
“Once again, the countries (rich countries) most responsible for the climate crisis have failed us. We leave Baku without an ambitious climate finance target, without concrete plans to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and without the comprehensive support that is desperately needed. for adjustment and loss and damage,” the group said in a statement.
“We came in good faith, with the safety of our communities and the well-being of the world at heart. Yet here at this COP we have seen the worst political opportunism, playing games with the lives of the world’s most vulnerable. Fossil fuel interests are determined to block progress and undermine the multilateral goals we have been working toward. This should never happen,” said Tina Stege, climate envoy to the Marshall Islands.