India hopes for fair negotiations in COP27.
The United Nations’ climate change summit opened in Egypt on Sunday with the inclusion of ‘loss and damage’ finance in the official agenda and India hoping that fair negotiations on it would follow.Loss and damage is the term used when the impacts of climate change are beyond people’s ability to adapt, or when options exist but communities do not have the resources to access or use them.
“By including this item on the agenda, India looks forward to engaging constructively and actively in the course of discussions at COP27 on this issue and to continuing fair negotiations on loss and damage,” said the Federal Environment Minister. Bhupender Yadav said in a blog post.“India welcomes his adoption of the agenda item ‘Loss and Damage’ at COP27,” the minister said.
He said financial mechanisms under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, such as Global Environment Facility, Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund, are under-funded and are not able to mobilise or deliver funds for loss and damage due to climate change.Funding from these mechanisms is complex and time-consuming. Adaptation funding was grossly inadequate, and loss and damage funding was largely negligible. India has taken note of the situation and, along with other countries, is calling for adoption of an agenda item on financing loss and damage, he said.India also looks to developed countries’ actions on climate change financing, technology transfer and capacity building of poor and developing countries to combat climate change. “India believes COP27 should be a ‘COP for Action’ on climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building, with the motto ‘together for implementation’.
The absence of a definition of climate finance allows developed countries to greenwash their finances and pass off loans as climate-related aid. “India is very clear that the world needs a multilaterally agreed definition of climate finance. India does not recognise loans to be climate finance because it pushes vulnerable countries further into debts. Our focus at COP27 during our negotiations is thus on concessional and climate-specific grants,” Yadav said.The talks will also highlight India as one of the few countries to meet the 2015 climate targets set in Paris, through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘LiFE movement’ which stands for ‘lifestyle for the environment’. is. The Environment is a people- and planet-friendly initiative that aims to shift the world from thoughtless and wasteful consumption to mindful and conscious use of natural resources. Yadav said India believes climate action starts at the individual level and Prime Minister Modi has offered a simple solution. Through the “LiFE movement” to the complex issue of climate change.
