Ministry paper at climate meet blames rich nations

NEW DELHI: Developed countries are not spending enough to mitigate the impact of climate change, the Indian ministry of finance submitted at the COP 24 climate conference being held in Katowice, Poland.

In a paper titled “3 Essential “S”s of Climate Finance - Scope, Scale and Speed: A Reflection” released on Tuesday on the sidelines of COP 24, the ministry questioned climate finance values being reported by the developed countries as having been transferred by them to developing countries.

The paper also said definitions of climate change finance used in various reports by developed countries were not consistent with the provisions of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This apart, the finance which has come through till now is far lower than that originally promised by the developed nations.

The ministry quoted a recently released report of the standing committee on finance by UNFCCC which assessed the total climate finance flows based on the biennial assessment reports of the developed countries. The total climate-specific finance flows from Annex II Parties (which includes the US, Australia and European Union) in 2016, according to this report, amounts to only around $ 38 billion which is less than 40% of the $100 billion target of climate finance. Around 90% of the funding has been through bilateral, regional and other channels while only around 10% of this was through multilateral funds.

Developing nations and least developed countries have been demanding that developed nations, particularly the US, take historical and moral responsibility for being among the largest greenhouse gas emitters and for being historically responsible for accentuating climate change. The moral responsibility includes transfer of funds to them for adaptation to climate change and transfer of technology. Arti- cle 9 of the Paris Agreement stipulates as much. That hasn’t happened, the paper argues.

“It needs to be noted that the growth in reported climate-specific finance actually slowed down from 24% between 2014 and 2015 to 14% between 2015 and 2016. The various reported figures on climate finance have often led to serious questions and contributed to the “trust deficit”. But all is not lost. The Paris Agreement has provided an opportunity to agree on new rules of accounting and reporting framework on climate finance,” the discussion paper states.

The ministry paper also refers to an assessment by Oxfam (2018) of the $100 billion climate finance goal. The assessment states that the value of loans is being over-reported. “If the finance for development projects that only par- tially cover climate change were reported more accurately, annual bilateral flows of public climate finance could be between $10 billion and $15 billion lower than reported. Grant based assistance is too low and is rising too slowly,” the paper added.

In conclusion, the paper said that there is na eed to establish more credible, accurate and verifiable numbers on the exact size of the climate finance flows from developed to developing nations.

“The global community displayed an unprecedented speed in ratifying the Paris Agreement. Meeting the climate finance obligations also deserves the same momentum,” it said, adding that questions on climate finance should be clearly addressed while finalising the rule book for implementation of the Paris Agreement.

GROWTH IN REPORTED CLIMATE-SPECIFIC FINANCE SLOWED DOWN FROM 24% IN 2014-2015 PERION TO 14% DURING 2015 AND 2016