Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav will lead the Indian delegation to the 27th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-27) scheduled to be held at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt from 6-18 November.

India is fully engaged with the process and is supportive of the efforts by the government of Egypt for substantive outcomes at COP-27.

In the 56th Session of the subsidiary bodies held in June 2022 in Bonn, developing countries made it clear that UNFCCC is the centre of the collective and multilateral response to the issue of climate change. There must be a faithful, balanced, and comprehensive implementation of the Convention and the Paris Agreement, in accordance with its goals and principles.

”India looks forward to substantial progress on the discussions related to climate finance and clarity on its definition,” the Ministry of Environment said.

It said more clarity is needed on the definition of climate finance for developing countries to be able to accurately assess the extent of finance flows for climate action.

”While the Standing Committee on Finance will submit a report on the various definitions, we hope to have good deliberations on this to arrive at a common understanding. The interpretation of the term must be in line with the commitments made by the countries on climate finance in the Convention and its Paris Agreement,” the ministry added.

The goal of $100 billion per year climate finance by 2020 and every year thereafter through 2025 is yet to be achieved. Due to a lack of common understanding, several estimates of what has flown as climate finance are available. While the promised amount must be reached as quickly as possible, there is a need now to substantially enhance the ambition to ensure adequate resource flow under the new quantified goal post-2024.

The discussion on the new collective quantified goal in the ad-hoc working group must focus on the quantity of the resource flow and also on the quality and scope. Issues relating to access to and suggestions for improvement in the function of the financial mechanisms are also important. Besides this, improvement in transparency to ensure appropriate oversight of the quantum and direction of flows is imperative. The Ad hoc working group must provide advice/ suggestions covering all the above aspects.

Strengthening the financial mechanisms of UNFCCC and its operating entities is imperative to meet the climate finance delivery goals. There needs to be a greater discussion on this as resources available to them should be utilized well. The SCF could also play an important role in assessing the shortcomings and may suggest appropriate measures to address them.

India will support the Egyptian presidency, with a plan of action that answers the needs of developing countries. Adaptation and loss and damage are two issues at the centre of attention, and progress on these two issues will complement each other.