Bonn climate talks: Row persists over finances for developing nations

By Vishal Gulati

Bonn, Nov 17 (IANS) With the two-week-long UN Climate Change negotiations meandering through its scheduled closing day here on Friday, climate experts are still quarreling over the flow of money from the developed to the developing world for smooth transition to clean energy.

"How much money will rich nations give to poor nations under the Paris Climate Agreement is a big question. The more important is time. When," a negotiator representing a developing nation asked while speaking to IANS.

He said these are the fundamental questions with which negotiators from 197 governments were grappling with as the conference is close to its scheduled culmination.

At Bonn, India reiterated provisions for finance, technology transfer for climate actions from the developed nations.

"Developed countries had already agreed to mobilise $100 billion annually by 2020 to help developing countries adopt low-carbon technologies and prepare for climate impacts. In Paris, this goal was extended through at least 2025. After that countries may negotiate a higher amount," Niranjali Manel Amerasinghe, Climate Finance Associate in the Sustainable Finance Center of the Washington-based World Resources Institute, told IANS.

A day after a major victory for India and developing countries on climate action before 2020 that the developed world agreed to discuss in subsequent two years, India's Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan said provisions for finance, technology transfer and capacity building support to developing nations are critical.

"We need not always wait for scientific reports to act," he said at the high-level ministerial meeting of the climate change conference on Thursday.

"Additional and early pre-2020 action by developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol and provision of finance, technology transfer and capacity building support to developing countries are critical for limiting the global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius by end of the century," he said.

Saying this Conference of Parties (COP23) is crucial as it would set the stage for the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue, accelerate pre-2020 action and firm up the modalities for implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement, the minister said India has undertaken ambitious mitigation and adaptation action.

The action is in the fields of clean energy, especially renewable energy;, enhancement of energy efficiency; development of less carbon-intensive and resilient urban centers; and promotion of waste-to-wealth and efforts to enhance carbon sink through creation of forest and tree cover.

On the demand of BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China), Fiji, which is presiding over the conference, has also been asked to send letters to all the countries which are yet to ratify the Doha amendments to the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 to do so "as soon as possible".

The developed countries have also been asked to give information by May 1 next year on the progress they have made on pre-2020 action that relates to their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol that includes reduction of emissions and transfer of technology and finance.

India had been demanding since the start of the climate summit on November 6 that pre-2020 climate action be included in the formal agenda of the negotiations.

The developed world had so far been resisting this.

The BASIC countries also emphasised the need for openness, transparency and the country-driven nature of negotiations at the annual summit.

Expressing concern over delays to bring the developed world back on track on meeting its commitments on climate action, Brazilian Vice Minister for the Environment, Energy, Science and Technology J. Antonio Marcondes told IANS: "It took us a week to persuade the other side to come with us."

"Instead of discussing on procedure, we could have made better use to discuss substance."

He said the "other side" had realised after a week "what is needed to hit the ground as 2020 comes near".

"Yes, we wasted a week discussing procedure instead of a direction. It's regrettable and now it's time to move faster," he added.

Two years after the world united around the Paris Climate Agreement and a year after its entry into force, the 197 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 197 have reconvened for their annual climate change talks (this one is COP 23) in Bonn till November 17.

The talks are expected to take a number of decisions necessary to bring the Paris Agreement to life, including meaningful progress on the agreement to implement guidelines to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius with an aim to cut greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

(Vishal Gulati is in Bonn at the invitation of the Global Editors Network to cover COP23. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

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