Ahead of the annual climate change conference in Poland next month, ministers of BASIC countries stressed on Tuesday that developed countries need to step up their action on climate finance and technology transfer which are part of the pre-2020 actions before the Paris climate agreement kicks in.
Union Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and Xie Zhenhua, Special Representative for Climate Change Affairs of China, emphasised that receiving climate finance from developed countries was a key concern.
Harsh Vardhan said that most of the promises and commitments made by the developed world on financial support, technology support and technology transfers have not been fulfilled. “Unfortunately, all this is happening mainly in discussions, on the ground it is not happening. So the BASIC group wants to assert this in a big way in COP (Conference of Parties) 24,” he said. This was the 27th BASIC group ministerial meeting on Climate Change. The BASIC group of countries comprises of Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
“Lack of ambition of developed countries and their unfulfilled promises should not place additional burden on developing countries to further enhance the level of ambition of their NDCs. Barriers continue to impede the progress of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency deployment,” Dr Harsh Vardhan added.
When asked about the climate finance provided by developed countries, the Chinese representative Zhenhua, the country’s veteran climate change negotiator said that in 2016, Australia and United Kingdom had said that $64 billion dollars was provided. However, developing countries had not accepted this as there were differences over the methodology and calculations. “Some of the money has been over counted, the developed countries felt... we will wait and see their actions, we will wait for them to honour their commitments,” Zhenhua said.
Under the Paris climate accord, that entered into force on November 4, 2016, countries have committed to tackle climate change by submitting Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), which would dictate the ‘voluntary’ actions they are undertaking, such as cutting greenhouse gas emissions and moving towards green energy.
Developing nations such as India, have agreed to submit this action plan on the condition that rich economies, such as US and EU countries, provide support in the form of finance, technology transfer and capacity building.
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