In the midst of extreme heat, massive floods and severe droughts, India is working with other developing nations to revive the call to get compensation for the world’s leaders gather in November to attend the annual UN climate summit.
A South Asian nation made a similar argument at the COP26 at Glasgow, Scotland, arguing that countries with higher incomes should compensate for the damage caused by climate change suffered by countries that are less developed and have been less involved in warming the planet.
The issue was ultimately masked by efforts to secure additional commitments to limit global warming. However, it’s likely to become the focus of attention when the talks resume at COP27 host Egypt which is an African nation that is facing increasing sea levels and growing deserts.
“Mitigation was the focus of the last COP talks because that’s what the UK focused on as hosts,” Indian Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav told reporters in an interview held on the fringes of a conference that was held in New Delhi. “This had caused disappointment among the smaller countries over the lack of discussion on loss and damages.”
India is working in conjunction with the grouping of less developed countries to maintain the emphasis on compensation, as worsening weather impacts the economies of these countries, Yadav said, citing the extreme heat and flooding which ravaged areas of India and a few of its neighbours this year.
The rich nations pledged at a climate summit back in 2009 that they would contribute 100 billion dollars a year until 2020 in order to assist their poorer counterparts switch to more sustainable sources of energy and to adapt to the extreme climate. To date, countries with higher wealth have only contributed $20.1 billion to adaption.
Although in 2015, the Paris climate agreement contained provisions to deal with “loss and damage,” there were many unanswered questions. The idea behind the agreement is that nations that are affected by climate-related disasters such as floods could claim back money, but scientists are only just beginning the work of calculating the extent to which a warmer planet has contributed to extreme weather events.
In contrast to most developing countries, India is also one of the most significant major contributors of global warming. It pledged last year to achieve the goal of net-zero carbon emission by 2070. It has sought to obtain $1 trillion from richer industrialized countries to help achieve its targets. The government revised its climate pledges in a voluntary manner in the last month, and is now revealing actions like ordering to use cleaner energy sources and an carbon credits trading scheme for the most polluting industries. However, it requires help to cut its emissions as well as change its practices.
An Standard Chartered report published in April predicted that India would require investments worth $12.4 trillion, or nearly the entire U.S. GDP last year from developed countries and investors to be net-zero in 2060. This is more than more than a decade before its target.In the meeting to his Egyptian partner, Yadav said he discussed the need for commitments to adapt to climate change, land degradation and agriculture as well as compensation.
“damages and Loss is an important issue which must be discussed,” said the expert. declared.
