Page 3 - Climate Finance

COP29 leaders unveil new climate funding and energy storage goals

Over 120 countries pledged at last year's COP28 summit in Dubai, for example, to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030

India committed to climate-friendly growth: NITI Aayog CEO Subrahmanyam

NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam on Wednesday said India is committed to climate-friendly growth, but fossil fuels are still driving the country's economic growth. Addressing an event here, Subrahmanyam said markets alone cannot solve the problem of climate change. "India is committed to climate-friendly growth...(but) fossil fuels are still going to drive the country's economic growth," he said. Subrahmanyam further said that NITI Aayog is working with states in developing a roadmap for green energy transition and a pathway to achieve a net zero carbon emissions target. "NITI Aayog is working with states in developing a roadmap for energy transition...we will come out with a document in November," he said. Subrahmanyam opined that markets alone cannot solve the problem of climate change. "India is one of the countries on the track to meet its climate targets under the 2015 Paris Agreement...We are committed to achieving net zero emissions target by 2070, even though less than 4

India provided more climate finance than many rich nations in 2022: Report

India contributed USD 1.28 billion in climate finance through multilateral development banks (MDBs) in 2022, surpassing the contributions of many developed countries, according to a new analysis. The analysis, conducted by the UK-based think tank ODI and the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance, comes amid a renewed push by some developed countries to broaden the donor base for climate finance to include developing countries like China and Saudi Arabia. The report reveals that only 12 developed countries provided their fair share of international climate finance in 2022. These countries are -- Norway, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Japan, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Finland. Researchers noted that the significant gap in climate finance is largely due to the United States failing to contribute its fair share. Australia, Spain, Canada and the United Kingdom also performed relatively poorly in this regard. The analysis has identified the top 30 ...

Global South must raise voice for ambitious new climate finance goal: India

India on Saturday said the Global South should collectively raise its voice for an ambitious new climate finance goal at the UN climate change conference in Azerbaijan's Baku. Addressing a session of the third Voice of Global South Summit, Union environment ministry secretary Leela Nandan said COP29 must deliver concrete commitments to halt global warming and ensure climate justice. "We must collectively raise our voices in Baku for a transparent, grant-based, concessional and ambitious new collective quantified goal," she said. Financial support to help middle-income and poor countries fight climate change will be at the centre of the UN climate conference in Baku, where world leaders will reach the deadline to agree on the New Collective Quantified Goal -- the new amount developed nations must mobilise every year from 2025 to support climate action in developing countries. Achieving a consensus will not be easy, given the disappointing progress made on the issue at the mid-year U

COP29 only chance to bridge climate action, finance gap: Commonwealth chief

The COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan's Baku is the world's only chance to bridge the gaps in climate action and finance which is crucial to "rebuild trust" among countries and protect lives and livelihoods, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has said. In an interview with PTI via Zoom, Scotland said it is important to have the fossil-fuel producers as allies in the fight against climate change. Azerbaijan, the host of this year's UN climate talks, is a small petrostate on the Caspian Sea. Nearly all of its exports are oil and gas. "We are nearing the cliff, the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius limit. In fact, some of our scientists say that we are there now. Our home, our planet, is literally on fire. Instead of action, we see the gaps in emissions, finance, and justice widening. It is our duty to bridge those gaps, and COP is our only chance. It comes at a moment of immeasurable urgency," Scotland said. She said rich countries promised to provide USD 100 billion (one ..

Political direction needed to settle dispute on climate finance: COP29 prez

The president of this year's UN climate summit said on Wednesday that political direction is required to resolve disagreements on a new financial target to support developing countries' climate actions post 2025. Climate finance will be at the centre of the UN climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the world will reach the deadline to agree on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) -- the new amount developed nations must mobilise every year starting 2025 to support climate action in developing countries. But achieving consensus will not be easy, given the disappointing progress made on the issue at the mid-year UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany. "There are disagreements on key elements that will require political direction and we must focus high-level discussions on these points," COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev said in a letter to nearly 200 countries that are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Babayev said clima

Rich nations failed to meet $100 bn climate finance promise in 2022: Oxfam

Rich countries falsely claimed that they provided nearly USD 116 billion in climate finance to developing countries in 2022, while the actual financial support given was not more than USD 35 billion, according to global non-profit organization Oxfam International. At the 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen, rich nations pledged to provide USD 100 billion annually from 2020 to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, delays in achieving this goal have eroded trust between developed and developing nations and have been a continual source of contention during annual climate negotiations. In May, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said that developed countries had met the long-standing USD 100-billion-a-year promise by providing nearly USD 116 billion in climate finance to developing countries in 2022. However, nearly 70 per cent of this money was in the form of loans, many of which were provided at profitable market ..

ADB's numbers on climate adaptation finance in Asia 'overstated': Oxfam

The Asian Development Bank's actual finance numbers for its largest climate adaptation projects in countries in Asia, including India, are "overstated" and could be off by 44 per cent, USD 0.9 billion instead of the reported USD 1.7 billion, Oxfam claimed in a report. The ADB, however, reaffirmed its figures, standing by its methodology and commitment to deliver USD 100 billion in climate financing by 2030, with USD 34 billion earmarked for adaptation and resilience. "We stand by our climate adaptation finance numbers" and the bank's determination is to fulfil its climate financing goals and its recent increase in climate finance commitments in 2023, a spokesperson of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said, responding to the report released by Oxfam, a non-profit. The report "Unaccountable Adaptation: The Asian Development Bank's overstated claims on climate adaptation finance" focused on ADB's largest climate adaptation projects in Asia and the Pacific, examining 15 major initiative

World Bank, IMF meetings conclude without concrete plan on climate finance

The annual World Bank and IMF meetings have wrapped up without a concrete plan to mobilise the trillions of dollars needed to fight climate change, in a year where agreement on New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) or a new climate finance goal will be the key issue at the United Nations climate conference (COP29) in Azerbaijan. NCQG is the new amount developed countries must mobilise every year from 2025 onwards to support climate action in developing countries. Rich countries are expected to raise more than the USD 100 billion they promised to provide every year from 2020, but repeatedly failed. A recent analysis revealed that financial flows into developing countries turned negative in 2023, with these nations paying out more in debt servicing than they received in external financing. Discussions between G7 and G20 finance ministers on the sidelines of the spring meetings that wrapped up on Saturday touched on providing finance to developing countries for meeting climate and ...

US Fed blocks tough global climate-risk rules for Wall Street Banks

European central bankers have been advocating for the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to agree on requiring lenders to disclose their strategies for meeting green commitments

RBI proposes road map for REs to address climate-linked financial risks

RBI said in the draft disclosure framework said REs are already required to disclose information on material risks as a part of their Pillar 3 disclosures

'Urgent need for climate risk evaluation rules, more adaptation funding'

India is yet to create a common framework for evaluating risks due to climate change and a systematic methodology for ascertaining the extent to which development programmes address climate risk and vulnerability, according to a new report released on Wednesday. The report by Climate Policy Initiative, a multi-national analysis and advisory organisation with expertise in finance and policy, said the lack of a common framework for evaluating climate risks makes it hard to tell how development projects address these issues, and to track funding for adaptation measures. Despite these challenges, it said, there is a growing push for climate adaptation action in India, leading to plans, policies, and schemes at national and state levels. However, the focus and progress vary among states. The report titled "Financing Adaptation in India" also highlighted the need for "significant" investment for adaptation (adjusting to the effects of climate change) in the country. An analysis of state

India, Singapore pact in climate finance has promising future: NITI Aayog

The cooperation between India and Singapore in the field of green finance has a promising future, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery has said, asserting that the two countries can work within the framework laid out in the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration on sustainable finance. The three-day Singapore visit of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog's vice-chairperson came under the Distinguished Visitors Programme (DVP) of Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It aimed to strengthen bilateral ties and foster mutual cooperation across all levels, according to the foreign affairs ministry here. India and Singapore can make something quickly and important happen in terms of green finance-climate finance within the framework that has been laid out in the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration on sustainable finance, he said after concluding the visit to understand thinking among planners in the city-state. Adopted on September 9 last year, the G20 New Delhi Leaders'

Sustainable debt management on agenda for NITI's global green push

Report on G20 deliberations says credit rating agencies should be regulated for fair assessments of emerging countries

COP28 summit forced into overtime as fossil fuel talks divide nations

Al Suwaidi said the COP28 presidency aimed for a "historic" result that included mentioning fossil fuels - but that it was up to countries to agree

Adani Group to invest $100 billion in the next decade for energy transition

The company said Adani portfolio businesses have an active strategy to decarbonise, pledge to plant 100 million trees by 2030, and undertake innovative pilot projects

India, China providing more climate finance than rich nations: Report

Some developing countries, including India, China and Brazil, contribute more climate-related finance through multilateral development banks than many countries in the Global North, according to an analysis by a UK-based website reporting on climate science and policy. The analysis comes amid a push from developed countries to broaden the donor base for climate finance to include developing countries like China and Saudi Arabia. For instance, in a submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on its expectations from the global stocktake in September, New Zealand said: "Different countries have different capabilities to contribute, which have changed over time. Current and historical emissions, national wealth, and a range of other factors have changed, and are continuing to change. Bifurcation based on thirty-year-old lists does not reflect the contemporary reality of where emissions are coming from, or respective capabilities to contribute." Citi

COP28 summit: The money food badly needs for climate fight is rolling in

More than $3 billion in climate finance has been pledged for food and agriculture

Can't compare India & nations with high per capita emissions: European Parl

Clubbing India with emitters like China and the US is completely unacceptable as its per capita emissions are "very low", a senior official of the European Parliament said on Saturday. Talking to PTI at the UN climate talks here, Peter Liese, a German politician and a member of the European Parliament, emphasised: "Indian people should be able to own a car when people in Germany own two cars." There have been concerted attempts to club India with major emitters like the US at climate negotiations despite its low per capita emissions. "It is very important to acknowledge for everybody that per capita emissions of the UAE, China and the US... they are very different from India. "Many people in Europe put China and India in the same basket and sometimes even with the Gulf states which is completely unacceptable. India has very low per capita emissions compared to these countries," he said. India's per capita carbon dioxide emissions rose by around five per cent last year to reach 2 .

Draft text at COP28 shows negotiators considering fossil fuel 'phase out'

The first option in the draft text was listed as "an orderly and just phase out of fossil fuels". The second called for "accelerating efforts towards phasing out unabated fossil fuels