The lack of financial support from developed countries to mitigate climate change in the Global South may prompt developing countries to “rework” their climate targets, India’s Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran has said.
In the Economic Survey 2024-25 tabled in Parliament on Friday, Nageswaran said the new financial package agreed at the 2024 UN climate conference (COP29) in Azerbaijan to support climate action in the developing world “presents little optimism”.
Countries are now required to submit their Nationally Determined Contributions or climate plans for the period between 2031 and 2035 by February 10 and Nageswaran said the “funding shortfall may lead to a reworking of the climate targets”.
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted in 1992, high-income industrialised nations, which have historically been responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, are required to provide finance, technology and capacity building support to developing and low-income economies to help them cope with a warming world.
These countries include the United States, the UK, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and European Union member states such as Germany and France.
The chief economic advisor said that domestic resources will be the key to climate action amid the lack of support from developed countries.
Therefore, resources for meeting development challenges may be affected, undermining progress toward sustainable development objectives and “compromising the integrity of international climate partnerships”, he said.
Nageswaran said the small mobilisation target of USD 300 billion annually by 2035 is just a “fraction” of the estimated requirement of USD 5.1-6.8 trillion by 2030.
The new climate finance package is “out of sync” with the needs of the critical decade when action is required to keep the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement within reach, Nageswaran said.
It underscores the unwillingness of affluent developed nations to assume their equitable share of the responsibility to address emission reduction and mitigate climate change impacts on vulnerable populations in developing regions, he said.
With the developed countries also falling short of their NDCs by about 38 per cent, Nageswaran said their actions do not reflect the historical responsibility or the leadership in meeting their obligations.
In 2015, countries came together to limit global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius”, aiming for 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Fast forward, the world has already heated up by 1.3 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era, largely due to burning fossil fuels.
To limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the UN’s climate science body, IPCC, says emissions must peak by 2025 and drop 43 per cent by 2030 and 57 per cent by 2035.
But current policies point to a hotter future — around 3 degrees Celsius warming by 2100. Even if every country fulfils its climate promises or NDCs, emissions would only shrink by a weak 5.9 per cent by 2030.
Developed nations, the biggest historical polluters, are pushing developing countries to do more to meet the Paris Agreement goals.
Yet, these same nations often fall short of what’s required to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
On the other hand, developing countries argue their emissions are far smaller and they are already grappling with poverty and growing climate disasters.
They insist they need financial and technological help to transition to clean energy without compromising their development. (PTI)
