Climate finance set to be main agenda at COP29

Countries must come together to set the new climate finance goal at the COP29 to be held in Azerbaijan in November, said Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday.

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Speaking at Re-Invest Summit 2024 in Gujarat, the minister said India has always maintained that an exact definition of ‘climate finance’ should be decided at the global level in order to improve capacity-building in all developing countries. “India will continue to be the voice of the Global South at the global forum. India is working on international cooperation to empower the global south and assessment of financial requirements with new quantifiable goals being the focus areas at COP29. Finance talks are central to the success of the conference. For capacity building, climate finance must be defined accordingly,” Yadav said.

The main task for the November summit is for countries to agree on a new annual target for funding that wealthy countries will pay to help poorer nations cope with climate change. Many developing countries say they cannot upgrade their targets to cut emissions faster without first receiving more financial support to invest in doing this.

He said economic viability of capacity building and technology transfer holds the key to developing renewable energy markets. Yadav pointed out that global climate action cannot be achieved until inequalities persist between developed and developing countries in terms of technology and finance. “The world has to see that developing countries like India have significant needs for its development. Yet, we have progressed our climate action,” he said.