Share green tech and funds freely; allow developing nations to grow: India tells rich nations at COP29

'The high carbon emission development pathways of the Global North in the past have left very little carbon space for the Global South,' Singh said.

New Delhi: Warning the world of the imminent breach of available carbon space, India on Tuesday asked the rich nations to freely share green technologies and funds needed to deploy them so that enough carbon space is available to developing nations like India to grow.

Making the national statement at the ongoing UN Climate Summit in Baku, Kirti Vardhan Singh, the Minister of State for Environment said raising of climate ambitions to align with the Paris temperature goals must be preceded by free availability of green technologies, producing them on scale and availability of finance for their deployment, particularly in the Global South.

“The high carbon emission development pathways of the Global North in the past have left very little carbon space for the Global South. However, our growth trajectories for fulfilling the primary needs of sustainable development and poverty eradication cannot be compromised,” he said.

“Despite not contributing to the problem, we in the Global South are bearing huge financial burden on account of climate actions for mitigation on the one hand, and losses and damages caused by climate change on the other, thus severely limiting our capacity to meet our developmental needs.”

Weeks ago, the United Nations Environment Programme released its latest Emission Gap report that states the nations have to cut their emission by 42 per cent by 2030 and 57 per cent by 2035 to get on track for 1.5 degree Celsius as mandated by the Paris accord.

These figures will be taken into account when the nations will submit the next round of nationally determined contribution (NDC) – voluntary emission cut targets.

“A failure to increase ambition in these new NDCs and start delivering immediately would put the world on course for a temperature increase of 2.6-3.1 degrees Celsius over the course of this century. This would bring debilitating impacts to people, planet and economies,” the UNEP says.

Singh said the breach of carbon space seemed imminent towards the end of the current decade and it was imperative that the developed countries show leadership in mitigation actions, as required under Paris Agreement, by not just advancing their net zero targets but providing enough carbon space for developing countries like India to develop.

“The emergent situation we are in, there is no option but to break all barriers to flow of technology, finances and capacity to the Global South,” the minister noted.