Paying ‘huge costs’ for climate action: India at COP29 #IndiaFinance

Union Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, on November 19, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
| Photo Credit: AP

“Huge costs” were being levied upon India for the voluntary “climate action” it was undertaking, Minister of State Kirti Vardhan Singh said as part of India’s official statement on Tuesday (November 19, 2024) at the Conference of Parties (COP). Countries have entered into the final week of negotiations and are expected to decide on a new financial target that would facilitate the global transition away from a fossil fuel economy.

“CoP29 is the CoP for Climate Finance — the New Collective Quantified Goals on Climate Finance for mobilising climate finance for meeting the needs and priorities of developing countries. We all need to appreciate that huge costs are being imposed on a developing country like ours for undertaking climate actions,” the Indian delegation submitted.

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Countries are expected to update next year their voluntary commitments to curb emissions from the use of fossil fuel, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). But the upper limit of carbon emissions that the atmosphere could support without having temperatures go past the 1.5C mark was likely to breached by the end of the decade, India noted.

“It is imperative, therefore, that the developed countries show leadership in mitigation actions, as required under Paris Agreement, by not just advancing their net zero targets but providing enough carbon space for developing countries like ours to develop,” the statement added.

Despite not being a contributor to the problem, countries in the Global South are bearing a huge financial burden on account of climate actions for mitigation on the one hand, and losses and damages caused by climate change on the other, thus severely limiting their capacity to meet their developmental needs, India underlined.

India listed out its climate actions, including reaching its 2015 NDC targets on emission intensity reduction, and non-fossil-based installed electricity generation capacity much earlier than 2030, tripling renewable energy capacity from 2014 levels, launching Mission LiFE- Lifestyle for Environment to encourage sustainable lifestyle practices at the global level, and the Ek Ped Maa ke Naam (a tree in mother’s name) campaign that has planted one billion saplings so far.

“The emergent situation we are in, there is no option but to break all barriers to flow of technology, finances and capacity to the Global South. The theme of this CoP – ‘enabling actions and enhanced ambition’ is very relevant in this context,” the statement said.