India put on record its "deep disappointment" with the deliberations at the COP26 meet so far, noting that developed countries must accept their historical responsibility towards climate change mitigation and must provide the finance required to the developing nations.
The second week of the summit began on Monday and India registered its disappointment at the ministerial dialogue on climate finance.
"The global action on climate change is contingent on the delivery of timely and adequate finance. Developed countries had taken a commitment in 2009 to mobilise $100 billion per year by 2020 for climate action by developing countries. The promise has not been met. Scaling up mobilisation is pertinent given the huge gap between the requirement and extent of mobilisation," said India's statement.
India emphasised that the “resources mobilised must be new and additional, climate-specific, with emphasis on public finance”. Noting that adaptation to climate change events was as important, India said that the funds must come in equal measure for mitigation and adaptation.
India is a member of the Like-Minded Developing Countries, and on behalf of this grouping, it had submitted a position paper defining the elements of climate finance according to the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The Paris Agreement head said that parties shall, before 2025, set a new collective quantified goal from a floor of $100 billion per year, considering the needs and priorities of developing countries.
“Our expectation from the COP is that it would put in place a structured process to arrive at an ambitious, new, collective quantified goal," said the Indian statement.
“It is 2021 now and we need a road map on arriving at a consensus on this mandate by 2023. However, the view of the developed countries to have ‘in-session workshops and seminars’ on the matter with questions being raised on who the resource providers would be is a matter of concern.”
