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.
“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. 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.
That was the commitment,” Goyal said.
Commerce Minister was referring to financial pledges taken by the developed nations earlier at the climate summits.
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. “Even today, as we sit here, my per capita contribution to carbon emissions is probably less than 10% or 15% of yours. I’m representing 17% of the world’s population, and I am more conscious of waste and the circular economy,” he said.
