COP27 | India to push for climate finance as rich countries fail to keep promise

Developing countries like India and small island nations have been asking for a separate fund to tackle the extremes of climate caused by historic polluters in the West. Loss and damage refer to compensation for the impact of extreme weather events like cyclones, droughts and flooding and slow onset events like sea-level rise and the retreat of glaciers.

The struggle for such financing has just started, climate activists said. “The inclusion of loss and damage finance in the agenda for COP27 has renewed the fight for justice for communities losing their homes, crops and income,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, a collective of climate NGOs.

Wealthy nations, historically responsible for the climate crisis, have always pressured poorer nations to protect polluters from paying up for climate damages, disregarding the concerns of vulnerable people and countries, Singh said. “COP27 must agree to establish a Loss and Damage Finance Facility to help people recover from the impacts of climate crisis such as intensifying floods, droughts and rising seas,” he added.

India’s stance at COP27

India’s position has been clear on the issue. “COP27 should be a COP of Action, with key deliverables having a specific focus on defining climate finance, outcomes on adaptation, and loss and damage,” environment minister Bhupender Yadav said in a statement before leaving for Egypt.

India will push 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 must complement each other, the Indian delegation led by Yadav has said.

The United Nations is in sync with India. There should be a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies to finance countries suffering loss and damage, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said at the general assembly in September. “Vulnerable countries need meaningful action. Loss and damage are happening now, hurting people and economies now, and must be addressed now—starting at COP27,” he said.

While placing loss and damage on the agenda is a step in the right direction, the negotiations on funding to adapt to climate change are likely to be more fractious.

Climate adaptation refers to adjustments in ecological, social, or economic systems in response to climatic impacts, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). There has been little progress on adaptation funding since COP26 was held in the Scottish city of Glasgow in November 2022.

Global adaptation finance to developing countries is 5 to 10 times below the projected requirement and the gap continues to widen, said the Adaptation Gap Report 2022 of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Climate adaptation finance provided by wealthy nations was only $29 billion in 2020, just 34 percent of total climate finance available and only a 4 percent increase since 2019, the report said. In comparison, estimated annual climate adaptation needs worldwide are $ 160-340 billion by 2030 and $315- 565 billion by 2050, the UN environment agency said in its annual adaption report.

India, too, has called for significant progress on the action, indicators, and metrics about climate adaptation, without any hidden agenda of mitigation, especially in the form of nature-based solutions, in the name of co-benefits. “We need more clarity on adaptation at this COP,” India’s environment secretary Leena Nandan said last week.

The scorecard is not encouraging, the report showed. “Significant acceleration is needed if a doubling of 2019 finance flows by 2025 is to be met, as urged by the Glasgow Climate Pact,” it said.

Adaptation must take centre stage alongside mitigation in the global response to climate change, the report said. “However, even ambitious investments in adaptation cannot fully prevent climate impacts, so losses and damages must be addressed adequately,” it added.

Rich nations have failed to keep the promise made in 2009 to provide $100 billion in climate finance every year. The Glasgow Climate Pact stipulated that adaptation finance should be doubled.

World warmer by 1.15 degrees

And the need for it was never so acute. The planet is now 1.15 degrees Celsius warmer compared with preindustrial times and the rise in temperatures continues unabated, the World Meteorological Organisation said on November 6 in its annual State of Global Climate report.

The global mean temperature in 2021 was 1.11 above the preindustrial average, the UN weather agency said in its provisional report. Concentrations of the main three greenhouse gas—carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide—once again smashed records in 2021, it said.

“The greater the warming, the worse the impacts,” WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas said. “We have such high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now that the lower 1.5 degrees Celsius of the Paris Agreement is barely within reach.”

Countries agreed to contain global temperature rise “well within” 2 degrees Celsius in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement and said efforts should be made to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.

The last eight years were the warmest on record due to increased emissions and accumulated heat, the WMO said. Record-breaking rains in July and August led to extensive flooding in Pakistan. There were at least 1,700 deaths and 33 million people affected, it said. As many as 7.9 million people were displaced.

The flooding in Pakistan came on the heels of extreme heat waves in March and April in India and Pakistan which shrivelled the spring wheat harvest amid a global food scarcity precipitated by the Ukraine conflict.

“The heat caused a decline in crop yields. This, combined with the banning of wheat exports and restrictions on rice exports in India, are threatening the international food markets and posing risks to countries already affected by shortages of staple foods,” WMO said.

“As the World Meteorological Organization shows so clearly, change is happening with catastrophic speed— devastating lives and livelihoods on every continent,” Guterres said in a statement. People and communities everywhere must be protected from the immediate and ever-growing risks of the climate emergency, he said.

“We must answer the planet’s distress signal with action — ambitious, credible climate action,” Guterres added. “COP27 must be the place – and now must be the time.”