New Delhi: India, in its national statement on Tuesday (November 19) at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, highlighted the “breach” of carbon space by developed nations and specified that the new finance goal – the New Collective Quantified Goal, which developing countries must receive for climate action and has to be finalised at the UN climate summit – must be “ambitious” and “unambiguous”.
Calling COP29 an “important juncture of our collective fight against climate change”, Kirti Vardhan Singh, minister of state of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, delivered India’s national statement on the evening of Tuesday at the UN’s 29th Conference of the Parties or COP29, that is ongoing at Baku.
He said that the decisions taken at COP29 should be backed by the “core principles of equity, climate justice and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, as provided in the UNFCCC [UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] and its Paris Agreement”.
“The context of different national circumstances, sustainable development goals and poverty eradication, particularly in respect of the Global South, should not be lost sight of,” he added.
Decreased carbon space
According to the 2024 Global Carbon Budget report by the Global Carbon Project, carbon emissions from fossil fuels and cement will rise around 0.8% in 2024, reaching a record 37.4 billion tonnes of CO2 (GtCO2), 0.4GtCO2 higher than the previous record that was set in 2023.
Total carbon emissions – including both fossil and land-use emissions – will also set a new record at 41.6 GtCO2, reflecting a growth of 2% over 2023 levels.
At this rate, the remaining carbon budget for the world – the amount of carbon that can be emitted to achieve the 1.5°C warming limit as per the Paris Agreement – will be exhausted in six years. And carbon budgets to limit warming to 1.7°C and 2°C would be used up in 15 and 27 years.
“The hard carbon emission development pathways of the Global North in the past have left very little carbon space for the Global South,” Singh said, reading out the national statement at COP29.
However, India’s growth trajectory to fulfil the “primary needs” of sustainable development and poverty eradication cannot be compromised, he underlined.
“The breach of carbon space seems imminent to us at the end of this critical decade,” he added later in the speech. “It is imperative, therefore, that the developed countries show leadership in mitigation actions, as required under [the] Paris Agreement, by not just advancing their net zero targets, but providing enough carbon space for developing countries like ours to develop.”
India has undertaken “ambitious climate action”
Despite not contributing to the problem, India and countries in the Global South are bearing a “huge financial burden on account of climate actions”, not just for mitigation but also dealing with losses and damages caused by climate change. This “severely” limits India’s ability to meet its developmental needs, Singh said.
However, this has not dampened India’s resolve or commitment to take “ambitious climate actions”, Singh claimed.
He went on to list some steps India has taken as part of climate action, such as launching several coalitions, including the International Solar Alliance, with other countries.
“We achieved our 2050 NDC [Nationally Determined Contributions] targets on emission intensity reduction and non-fossil fuel based electricity generation capacity much earlier than 2030 and have further enhanced our ambition in these sectors. India’s renewable energy capacity has nearly tripled from its 2014 levels and we are on course to achieve the 500 GW target by 2030,” he said.
India has also launched mission LIFE to encourage lifestyle practices at the global level; Singh also claimed that one billion saplings have been planted as part of the programme “Ek Ped Ma ka Naam”.
However, raising climate ambitions must be preceded by the “free availability of green technologies, releasing them on scale, and the availability of finance for their deployment, particularly in the Global South”, Singh said.
“On the contrary, some of the developed countries have resorted to unilateral measures making climate actions more difficult for the Global South. The emergent situation we are in, there is no option but to break all barriers to the flow of technology, finances and capacity to the developing countries,” he added.
The European Union (EU)’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is one such unilateral measure that India and several other developing countries have not taken kindly to.
The CBAM is a kind of carbon tax that the EU imposes on select, imported emission-intensive products such as cement, aluminium and fertilisers. The importer of goods has to purchase certificates to compensate for the emissions produced in the manufacturing or production of the imported goods.
Since October last year, the CBAM has been in a transitional phase where importing companies only need to report the emissions associated with their products. However, it will be fully operational by January 2026: after this month, importers will have to not only declare the emissions produced by their products, but also forgo – based on the emissions involved – free allowances that the EU offers for these products.
Given that these carbon costs will have to be borne by the developing countries where the products are being manufactured and imported from – while developed countries have already contributed more than their share of emissions globally – some developing countries have already raised concerns regarding the impact this will have on their economies.
For instance, around a week before COP29 kicked off at Baku, China submitted concerns on behalf of the BASIC countries – India, China, Brazil and South Africa – to the UNFCCC that talks about “unilateral restrictive trade measures” be added to the COP29 agenda.
On the NCQG
Agreeing and finalising on a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) – which developed countries must mobilise for developing countries to implement climate action – is one of the main aims of the UN climate summit that is ongoing at Baku.
India, a developing country, is experiencing “huge costs” while also undertaking climate actions, Singh said in India’s statement.
“What we decide here on the NCQG must be founded on the principle of climate justice,” he said. “The decision must be ambitious and unambiguous, taking into consideration the evolving needs and priorities of the developing countries and their commitment to sustainable development and eradication of poverty.”
