"Haven't Seen Dime Of That": Piyush Goyal On $100 Billion Climate Finance

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal launched a critique of the developed world's track record on climate obligations, questioning wealthy nations and the European Union for failing to deliver on their climate finance commitments to the Global South. 

Addressing a roundtable at the Berlin Global Dialogue, Goyal called out developed nations for historically contributing the lion's share of global carbon emissions while reneging on their pledged financial and technological support to developing and vulnerable nations under the Paris Agreement.

"At the Paris climate conference in 2015, when the whole world came together, it was Prime Minister Modi who brought the Global South together and encouraged countries to commit to addressing climate change at COP21. It was agreed that the developed countries, who have enjoyed the fruits of messing up the climate for so many decades, will pay a greater price, and will support the developing and less developed countries, as well as island nations in the Pacific and the Caribbean...Just $100 billion a year. That was the commitment," Goyal said.

Lashing out at the prolonged inaction, Goyal said, "Eleven years later, we haven't seen a nickel or a dime of that. It's all promises. The larger question that the European Union and CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) have failed to answer."

Commerce Minister was referring to financial pledges taken by the developed nations earlier at the climate summits.

At the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries committed to jointly mobilise US$100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of the developing countries. 

In 2015, at COP21 in Paris, with the developed countries having failed to keep their commitment, it was decided to extend the US$100 billion per year goal through to 2025, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said in a statement on July 28, 2022.

Reminding them of the promises, Goyal continued, "They have failed to respond adequately to the needs of less-developed countries or support them in their decarbonisation efforts."

Goyal further highlighted the stark imbalance between the population sizes and emission outputs of the West versus India.

"Who's responsible for this mess in the first place? Where did the ozone layer get damaged? Who sent all that carbon into the atmosphere? I represent 17% of the world's population, but my contribution to global carbon emissions is less than 3%. You (Europe) represent probably 3% or 4% of the world's population, yet your contribution to those carbon emissions-or this mess-is humongous. The problem was caused by you," Goyal said.

The Union Minister stated that despite Western rhetoric, India's individual carbon footprint remains a fraction of European levels.

"Even today, as we sit here, my per capita contribution to carbon emissions is probably less than 10% or 15% of yours. Even today, Europe's per capita contribution to carbon emissions-and its per capita environmental impact-is probably seven or eight times that of India. I'm representing 17% of the world's population, and I am more conscious of waste and the circular economy," he said.

Highlighting India's domestic development compulsions alongside its rapid green energy transition, Goyal concluded: "I also have to meet the needs of 1.4 billion people. I have to meet their energy needs, their food needs, and ensure that my nation remains secure. Despite all of that, we have one of the world's fastest-growing clean energy programmes."

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