The developed world and its climate goals

India’s energy needs are expected to double in 20 years and denying people this energy would be the equivalent of denying life to millions, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi said on Wednesday at the World Sustainable Development Summit. He reminded developed nations to fulfil commitments on finance and technology transfer. His comments come days ahead of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on impacts and adaptation to the climate crisis on February 28.

India has been consistently raising the issue of climate finance. At the Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021, PM Modi announced that India’s non-fossil energy capacity will reach 500GW by 2030, meeting 50% of the country’s energy requirements, among other targets. There, too, he said that India expects climate finance worth $1 trillion at the earliest. In January, India at the United Nations (UN) called out the lack of “predictable financing” to developing countries, and reminded that the developed world pledged to give $100 billion per year by 2020, but failed to do so. Beyond targets, climate finance has been plagued with problems of non-transparency, dubious categorisations of diverse funding, and a greater proportion of loans versus grants, which can put a developing nation in a climate debt trap. The UN Environment Programme expects only the annual adaptation costs in developing countries to reach $140 to 300 billion per year by 2030, and $280-500 billion by 2050. As extreme weather events rise, impacting the world’s poorest, the developed world must step up and meet its commitments. It’s a climate emergency and there is no time to lose.