Draft COP26 deal sees no final amount or deadline for beginning climate finance yet

Representational image of extreme weather events due to climate change. (Image: AP)

While it recognises the need for urgent climate finance by developed economies, the draft agreement hammered out at COP26 after nine days of intense negotiations does not put a final target on the total amount of finance or the minimum level of funds to be raised.

“The draft agreement has mentioned the need for significantly scaling up the $100-billion climate finance target manifold, and has suggested that this may reach more than $1 trillion. However, there is scant movement beyond this,” a senior official present at the summit said.

Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing—drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing—that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change.

Even before COP26 began in Glasgow, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development had said developed countries would likely reach the $100-billion goal only in 2023.

Among other things, the draft agreement also calls for ending further coal exploration and production, as well as subsidies for fossil fuel. The first draft would go through multiple revisions before a concrete deal emerges.

Contentious issue

Meanwhile, international media has reported from the Glasgow summit that India has sought $1 trillion worth of financing just for itself. This is over and above the finance set to be extended to least developed countries, Pacific island states and sub-Saharan Africa, some of the poorest parts of the globe that are more susceptible to extreme weather events due to climate change.

However, sources said that the final amount of financing required would depend on multiple factors and currently remained unspecified. They did not confirm whether India wants $1 trillion worth of finance for itself.
Senior officials in the environment ministry, though, had earlier confirmed to Moneycontrol that India would not only seek finance for itself but would continue to bear the responsibility of arguing on behalf of smaller developing nations.

“On a broad scale, the amount of finance to be required by developing nations, including India, would be directly linked to how fast the developed nations reduce their emissions,” a senior source in the know said.

He added that India has communicated to the Conference of Parties or COP that developed countries need to be more ambitious in reducing carbon emissions, given that India has set a deadline of 2070 to become ‘'net zero’'. While the US, European Union and even China have all set earlier dates, their economies have already reached a higher stage of industrialization and prosperity that India is yet to naturally achieve.

At the historic Paris summit in 2015, all emitters, big and small, had agreed to bring forward new and more ambitious carbon-cutting plans every five years. The 2020 deadline has since passed without major commitments from any member of the developed bloc.

The Indian position

The government also continues to argue that the country’s per capita emissions show each Indian has a much smaller carbon footprint than the average American or European.

“This COP is all about climate finance. This represents the final barrier in the fight against climate change. Almost everything has been proposed and tried. Now, only the money remains to be made available,” said Samrat Sengupta, programme director, climate change and renewable energy at the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment.

India is also pushing for a part of the green financing from developed nations to be channelled into the International Solar Alliance, a network of now 101-plus countries that it has established and championed. The grouping has grown significantly in recent years and established the Global Green Grids Initiative last week at COP26.

The ambitious move is based on a plan to improve connectivity between the world’s power grids to accelerate the transition to greener energy. It will allow areas with excess renewable power to send it to areas facing a shortage. With the United States being the latest entrant into the grouping, the government is pushing for greater financing.