COP26 | Promised climate finance did not materialise: Sources

Climate activists attend a protest organized by the COP26 Coalition in London, Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021. The protest was taking place as leaders and activists from around the world were gathering in Scotland's biggest city for the U.N. climate summit, to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

In the aftermath of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, the developed world has been vociferous in blaming India and a handful of other developing nations for New Delhi’s strong stance against completely phasing out the use of coal in the final agreement.

However, sources told Moneycontrol that India had agreed in principle to the draft agreement under assurance that climate finance would be provided even till the draft agreement stage. When this did not materialise, there was no other option to maintain India’s strategic and economic interests, they added.

One of the landmark features of the draft agreement at Glasgow had been a promise to completely phase out the use of coal power and inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels. However, the final text was revised to read “phase down” owing to a last-minute amendment jointly proposed by India and China.

Head to head

Sources say that both nations, backed by other developing countries like South Africa and Indonesia, had argued that they can't promise to phase out coal power in the absence of the promised finance required to invest in renewable energy.

“While the summit was in essence a long-drawn negotiation on dozens of issues, India and other developing nations had been promised that the issue of climate finance would be comprehensively dealt with at every step, even until the draft agreement was brought out,” a senior official said.

He added that given how the global debate on climate change is poised, there was no easy way to break the deadlock without meaningful steps on providing climate finance by developed economies.

The government will next week take stock of the deliberations at Glasgow. Officials say it will then roll out suitable legislation and policy to match India's latest commitments.

Contentious clauses

In what was one of the most followed yet contentious such meets till now, the Glasgow summit had sought stricter commitments from nations to check climate change, building on their pledges in Paris six years ago.

The final outcome, known as the Glasgow Climate Pact, reaffirms the devastating impact on humanity and the planet if global temperature rises more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. But the participants stumbled on the measures needed to reach the goal of containing the rise in temperature.

Reduction of emissions from coal, considered one of the most polluting of all fossil fuels, had been the target since the beginning of the summit. However, the demand for climate finance went on simultaneously.

No finance

Even before delegates reached Glasgow, climate experts had stressed that the question of who would provide the promised $100 billion in annual climate finance and how would be the biggest issue at the summit. The Glasgow meet began with the stated intention by all parties to find out how much money should be committed.

All nations now agree that upwards of $1 trillion—not the $100 billion estimated in 2008—would be required annually to help poorer nations mitigate and adapt to climate change-led extreme weather events.

But as the richest economies could not agree on who will foot the bill and even when the financial assistance will begin, the debate on climate finance has remained inconclusive. The deal, however, asks rich countries to “at least double” by 2025 the sums they give to developing counties to help them adapt to climate change from 2019 levels.