India will provide more climate finance than many rich countries in 2022
Business.Business: India contributed USD 1.28 billion in climate finance through multilateral development banks (MDBs) in 2022, more than the contribution of many developed countries, according to a new analysis. The analysis, conducted by 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 such as China and Saudi Arabia. The report shows 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. The researchers found 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 identified the top 30 non-Annex II countries that provided substantial climate finance to developing countries through multilateral contributions to development banks and climate funds in 2022. This group includes transitional economies such as Poland and Russia, countries that have attained high-income status since 1992 such as Chile, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, and middle-income countries with large populations such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines and Pakistan.
India provided USD 1.287 billion in climate finance to other developing countries through MDBs in 2022, which is more than the contribution made by some developed countries such as Greece (USD 0.23 billion), Portugal (USD 0.23 billion), Ireland (USD 0.3 billion) and New Zealand (USD 0.27 billion). China provided USD 2.52 billion in climate finance through MDBs in 2022, Brazil provided USD 1.135 billion, South Korea provided USD 1.13 billion and Argentina provided USD 1.01 billion. Harjeet Singh, climate activist and global engagement director for the Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Remedies Initiative, said emerging economies like India are already doing more than their fair share in climate action and also providing financial support to other developing countries. Yet, rich countries – which have historically been most responsible for the climate crisis – are pressuring developing countries to do more. “It is unacceptable that rich, industrialised countries, which have failed to meet their climate-finance commitments, shift the burden to developing countries by shirking their obligations. Climate justice demands that those who created the problem take the lead in solving it, not shirk their responsibility,” he said. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted in 1992, high-income, industrialised countries (called Annex II countries) are responsible for providing finance and technology to help developing countries cope with and adapt to climate change. These countries, including the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and European Union (EU) member states such as Germany, France and the UK, have historically benefited from industrialisation and have been the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.
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At COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, these developed countries pledged to jointly provide USD 100 billion each year by 2020 to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, this target has not been fully met, creating significant financial shortfalls. This shortfall has eroded trust in developing countries and hindered climate action. In May, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) claimed that developed countries had fulfilled a long-standing USD 100 billion promise by providing about USD 116 billion in climate finance to developing countries in 2022, with about 70 percent of the money provided as loans. ODI researchers pointed out that many developed countries, despite performing well in terms of climate-finance contributions, “will make significantly less progress towards meeting their fair share if the finance provided is accounted for on grant-equivalence terms” – in other words, if it reflects their actual fiscal effort. The report calls for the inclusion of a “burden-sharing mechanism” in the new collectively quantified targets (NCQGs) to provide clarity on each country’s obligations and hold countries accountable. The NCQG refers to the new, large sum of money that developed countries must mobilise annually starting in 2025 to support climate action in developing countries. Countries are expected to finalise the NCQG at this year’s UN climate conference – COP29 – in Baku, Azerbaijan in November. The current USD 100 billion annual climate-finance target is a collective commitment by developed countries. Its collective nature means that the expressed
