India slams nations' climate inaction; calls for focus on pre-2020 gaps

India has said that the first-ever Global Stocktake outcome should prioritise addressing pre-2020 gaps, capture equity as an overarching concern and acknowledge the serious lack of ambition among developed nations in combating climate change.

Global Stocktake is a two-year UN review to evaluate collective global progress towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. This process will conclude at the end of COP28 in Dubai.

In a submission to the UNFCCC outlining its expectations from the Global Stocktake, India emphasised that the outcome should encourage developed nations to reduce their emissions in alignment with their historical responsibilities and provide support to developing countries in terms of finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity building.

The Global Stocktake outcome must promote global climate action within the context of poverty eradication, sustainable development, economic diversification efforts, and closing gaps in social and economic development between developed and developing countries, India emphasised.

It stressed that the First Global Stocktake outcome should not exclusively focus on future mitigation while disregarding "historical responsibility and pre-2020 emissions."

"Pre-2020 is the foundation upon which climate action must be built, and as such, pre-2020 gaps should be addressed as a matter of priority with a view to advancing long-term climate action and protecting the integrity of the Paris Agreement.

"It is an iterative process. There is a need to reaffirm the objectives, principles, and provisions of the Convention, in particular the principles of equity and CBDR-RC, keeping in view the process of enhanced action in the Pre-2020 period," it said.

The principle of equity ensures that countries' efforts to combat climate change are viewed in light of their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, both historically and currently, as well as the likely future emissions they will generate.

The CBDR-RC principle recognises that each country bears responsibility for addressing climate change, but developed countries should shoulder primary responsibilities, given their significant historical and current greenhouse gas emissions.

India also made it clear that it does not support any other classification of developing countries, such as "major emitters", "G20 partners", and "other developing and emerging economies", as these classifications overlook national circumstances and replace considerations of "equity and CBDR-RC" in terms of climate actions.

India argued that the Global Stocktake outcome must acknowledge the significant lack of ambition among Annex-I parties, evident from the gaps in the Pre-Paris era regarding mitigation and its implications for the mitigation burden after 2020.

It should also provide "science-based information" on whether Annex-I countries are on a low-carbon and climate-resilient pathway or if they require course correction. "For instance, have Annex-I countries invested in low-carbon and low-emissions development technologies?" India questioned.