'Promises by developed countries towards Paris Agreement not fulfilled'

Most of the promises made by the developed nations under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement on financial support to developing countries for climate action have not been fulfilled, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Tuesday.

He added that while a lot is being said on paper, "very little is happening on the ground" in terms of financial support and technology by the developed world.

The Minister was addressing the media after 27th Ministerial Meet of BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) national, ahead of the next Conference of Parties-24 to be held in Poland from December 3 onwards.

He said while developed countries failed to meet their pre-2020 commitments, there is a need for early revision of targets and to compensate the lagging in post-2020 commitments.

"Most of the promises made by developed world for pre-2020, we may say are not fulfilled by now... even if they couldn't do the pre-2020 commitments, they should do it post 2020," Harsh Vardhan said along with other BASIC representatives.

Under Paris Climate Agreement of United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed countries are suppose to contribute $100 billion per year till 2020. The amount will continue after 2020 with some additional contributions.

Stressing on mobilising $100 billion from the developed countries, BASIC nations also demanded earlier revision of the targets, which were suppose to happen in 2025.

"New targets must be made when there will be global stocktaking meet in 2023," said the Minister.

He said that while developed world talks around it financial commitments, the developing countries have not received funds.

The Paris Climate Agreement aims at limiting the global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and aspires to limit it at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

To do so, the developing countries have developed their plans or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) which incorporates different measures like solar power etc, and needs financial and technical support for that.

India's ambitious NDC requires over $1 trillion to be executed.

--IANS

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