Science

India Highlights ‘Breach’ of Carbon Space By Developed World, Says Finance Goal Must Be ‘Ambitious, Unambiguous’

It also said that principles of equity, climate justice and common but differentiated responsibilities must govern the decisions at the UN climate summit.

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.”

Halfway Into COP29, Finance Deal Still Far Away; India ‘Dissatisfied’ With Progress

India did not mince words on November 16 while delivering a statement at a plenary, saying that there was no progress at COP29 on matters that were important to developing countries; it also came down heavily on developed countries not ‘engaging’ enough on crucial matters.

Bengaluru: Saturday, November 16, marked the completion of the first six days of COP29, this year’s iteration of the UN’s largest annual climate conference. One of the main aims of this year’s COP is to ensure that countries agree on a New Collective Quantified Goal: an international fund that developing countries can tap into, to implement climate action.

However, countries still differ in their points of view regarding several aspects of the climate fund – including the total amount that should be mobilised every year, and how much developed countries need to contribute for this. So even halfway into the COP, the crucial finance deal still seems far away.

Meanwhile, India has not minced words regarding its dissatisfaction at the progress – or lack of it – for developing countries during the ongoing COP, and the “unwillingness” of Developed countries to engage in discussions pertaining to climate finance and mitigation. In a statement delivered during one of the closing plenaries on November 16, India said that developing countries were being asked to increase mitigation ambition by those who had not shown any.

Academics, in an open letter to the UN Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on November 15, have called for a complete reform of the COP process. Among the points they’ve highlighted is improving the selection process for COP presidencies. And that’s not surprising: the last COP witnessed a record 2,456 fossil fuel-associated lobbyists attending the COP. This year, it is more than 1,700: fewer, but still significant.

Finance deal still far away

It’s halfway into this year’s UN Conference of Parties, but an agreement on the New Collective Quantified Goal – an international fund that developing countries can use for climate action, and one of the main aims of COP29 that is ongoing at Baku, Azerbaijan – is still far away. Currently, the agreement is that developed countries will mobilise US $ 100 billion every year for climate finance, but this ends in 2025. The NCQG will then take over next year – and this is why countries agreeing to the operationalising and other details of this climate fund is crucial. India had said in a statement on behalf of Like-Minded Developing Countries on November 14 at the COP that developed countries should commit to provide and mobilise at least US $ 1.3 trillion every year till 2030, through grants, concessional finance and non-debt-inducing support that caters to the evolving needs and priorities of developing countries. The statement had also called out developed countries: it said that they had committed to jointly mobilise US $ 100 billion per year by 2020. But this deadline was extended to 2025. And while the amount is already inadequate when compared to the actual requirements of developing countries, “the real amount mobilised has been even less encouraging”.

While the draft text of the NCQG shot up to 34 pages in the first two days of COP29, the number of pages has now reduced to 25 in the second draft as of November 16. Experts prefer a shorter and clearer draft that does not include many brackets, which portray indecision. Currently, the 25-page draft has more than 400 bracketed items as per Carbon Brief. Crucial negotiations on this have been pushed to the second week, beginning Monday. The IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin reported that on November 16 the Arab group bloc and the bloc of Like-Minded Developing Countries said that some of the paragraphs they submitted as part of a streamline joining proposal, for the NCQG draft, were missing. A lot of important aspects of the NCQG are also currently options or sub-options, which means they are different points of view that countries still do not agree on. As per the latest iteration of the NCQG draft text (as of November 16, 16:00 hours), a goal of US $ 1.3 trillion per year (the number that India has asked as the NCGQ goal in a statement delivered on November 14) from 2025 to 2029 to be mobilised by developed countries for developing countries is part of one sub-option; part of the same sub-option is that developed countries cough up at least 600 billion per year out of this US $ 1.3 trillion for climate finance. As per Carbon Brief’s calculation there are 43 options in the entire text; each option contains several sub-options as those mentioned above.

Also read: COP29: Developing Countries Other Than China Need Around $ 2.4 Trillion Each Year for Climate Action by 2030

Hopes from the G20 Summit

The G20 summit kicks off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, today, and many are looking to the summit to direct negotiations at COP29. The Rio G20 Leaders’ Summit will be held on November 18 and 19 under the theme “Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet”.

Ana Toni, National Secretary for Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of Brazil, said in a press conference at COP29 that “a signal should come out from the G20 leaders’ summit”.

“This signalling is very important,” Indian Express reported her as saying.

Executive secretary of the UN, Simon Steill, wrote a letter to the G20 on November 16, saying that the negotiations ongoing at Baku for a new climate finance goal still have a “long way to go”.

“There is a long way to go, but everyone is very aware of the stakes, at the halfway point in the COP,” he wrote. “Climate finance progress outside of our process is equally crucial, and the G20’s role is mission-critical. Next week’s Summit must send crystal clear global signals. That more grant and concessional finance will be available. That further reform of multilateral development banks is a top priority, and G20 governments – as their shareholders and taskmasters – will keep pushing for more reforms. That debt relief is a crucial part of the solution, so that vulnerable countries are not hamstrung by debt servicing costs that make bolder climate actions all-but impossible – the G20 forum should make progress on this.”

Other agendas under discussion

Meanwhile, the head of the UN’s Adaptation Fund told Down To Earth on November 17 that the Adaptation Fund had received only US $ 61 million so far from developed countries during COP29, just one-sixth of their targeted US $ 300 million. The Adaptation Fund provides finances to developing countries to implement actions that help communities adapt to climate change. The actual funds required for adaptation amount to between US $ 200-400 billion, Mikko Ollikainen told DTE. He also added that the decision to double adaptation finance by 2025, compared to 2019 — taken at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland — is likely to be missed and in fact pushed back by around five years.

Other agendas that are still being discussed and negotiated on include the National Adaptation Plans (discussions on these have been pushed into the second week despite hosts Azerbaijan deciding that this would not be discussed as per the IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin), and taking forward the outcomes of the first Global Stocktake that occurred at the last COP, at Dubai, UAE.

COP29 progress unsatisfactory for developing nations, says India

Another section of events ongoing at COP29 pertains to the Mitigation Work Programme (MWP). Called the Sharm El Sheikh mitigation ambition and implementation work programme, the MWP is aimed at urgently scaling up ambition and implementation when it comes to mitigation measures, in a way that complements the Global Stocktake (the first of which was conducted at COP28 at Dubai, UAE, and measured the progress on global climate action; one of its findings was that there is currently a huge gap in reducing emissions by nations).

India, speaking at the closing plenary of one of the MWP events expressed dissatisfaction at the “unwillingness” of developed countries to engage with the MWP.

“We notice a tendency to ignore the decisions taken in the past – related to the Sharm el-Sheikh mitigation ambition and implementation work programme at CoP27 and the context of the Global Stocktake in the Paris Agreement, where it informs the parties for undertaking climate actions,” a press release, that detailed India’s statement delivered on November 16 at Baku, read.

Per the press release, India stressed that the MWP was established with the specific mandate that it shall be operationalised through focused exchanges of views, information and ideas. It said that the outcomes of the work programme will be non-prescriptive, non-punitive, facilitative, respectful of national sovereignty and national circumstances, while taking into account the nationally determined nature of nationally determined contributions and will not impose new targets or goals.

“If there are no means of implementation, there can be no climate action. How can we discuss climate action, when it is being made impossible for us to act, even as our challenges in dealing with the impacts of climate change are increasing?,” India asked.

India added that developed countries were being asked to increase mitigation ambition by those who have not shown any.

“We now have to meet our developmental needs in a situation of increasingly depleting carbon budget and increasing impacts of climate change,” India’s statement said. “We are being asked to increase mitigation ambition by those who have shown no such ambition, either in their own mitigation ambition and implementation, nor in providing the means of implementation.”

India also added that at COP29, there has so far been no progress on matters that are important for developing countries.

“We have seen no progress in matters that are critical for developing countries,” said India’s statement. “Our part of the world is facing some of the worst impacts of climate change, with far lower capacity to recover from those impacts or to adapt to the changes to the climatic system for which we are not responsible.”

Reform COP process: Academics in open letter

In an open letter to the UN Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on November 15, academics have called for a complete reform of the COP process. Signatories include Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW); Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Their main demands number seven. These are: transforming the COP into “smaller, more frequent, solution-driven meetings where countries report on progress, are held accountable in line with the latest science, and discuss important solutions for finance, technology and equity”; improving implementation and accountability by actions including strengthening mechanisms to hold countries accountable for their climate targets and commitments; ensure robust tracking of climate financing; amplify the voice of authoritative science by having a scientific body specifically for the COP and recognising the interdependencies between poverty, inequality and planetary instability.

Their first demand is about improving the selection process for COP presidencies:

“We need strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries who do not support the phase out/transition away from fossil energy. Host countries must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris Agreement,” the letter said.

And their last, about enhancing “equitable representation”:

“Improving the management of corporate interests within COPs proceedings will require stronger transparency and disclosure rules and clear guidelines that require companies to demonstrate alignment between their climate commitments, business model and lobbying activities,” per their letter.

Also read: Trump Is President Again, and It’s Bad News For the Climate

Fossil fuel lobbyists still in large numbers at COP29

These two demand are hardly surprising: the last COP, at Dubai, UAE, witnessed 2,456 fossil fuel-related lobbyists attending the event, as per an analysis by Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO), a coalition of more than 450 organisations across the world that are “united in demanding an end to the ability of Big Polluters to write the rules of climate action”.

This year, KBPO has reported that at least 1773 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to COP29. Their analysis released November 15 shows that fossil fuel lobbyists have received more passes to COP29 than all the delegates from the 10 most climate vulnerable nations combined (1033). Chevron, ExxonMobil, bp, Shell and Eni, which have brought a combined total of 39 lobbyists to COP29, are also linked to enabling genocide in Palestine by “fueling Israel’s war machine”, the report noted.

Similarly, the last three COPs have been conducted in countries that are hugely dependent on oil to run their economies: Egypt, UAE and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has also come under fire just before COP29 kicked off after a senior official linked with the current COP allegedly used his position to discuss potential fossil fuel ideals. On Tuesday, Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev had also said that oil and gas are a “gift of god”. He said that countries “should not be blamed” for having resources including oil and gas, and that they “should not be blamed for bringing the resources to the market, because the market needs them”.

Here Are the 2024 Infosys Prize Winners

‘This year, we refocused to reward early career researchers under the age of 40, recognising their immense potential and the promise of paradigm-changing work.’

New Delhi: The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) revealed the winners of the 2024 Infosys Prize on Thursday, November 14, celebrating excellence in research across six categories: economics, engineering and computer science, humanities and social sciences, life sciences, mathematical sciences and physical sciences. The awards ceremony took place at the ISF office in Bengaluru. Winners were chosen by an international panel of scholars and experts.

Arun Chandrasekhar, professor at Stanford University, was awarded for his study of social and economic networks. His research, drawing from data on village networks in Karnataka, has enhanced understanding of development economics and contributed insights for policymaking.

Shyam Gollakota, Professor at the University of Washington, received the prize for developing impactful technologies like smartphone-based healthcare tools, battery-free computing, and AI-enhanced auditory sensing for low- and middle-income countries.

Mahmood Kooria, lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, was honoured for his work on maritime Islam and Islamic law’s influence on economic, political and cultural shifts across the Indian Ocean, particularly in Kerala’s pre-modern era.

Siddhesh Kamat, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, was recognised for his discoveries on bioactive lipids, shedding light on their role in cellular function and implications for human health.

Neena Gupta, professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, was awarded for her work on the Zariski Cancellation Problem in algebraic geometry. Her research has addressed a fundamental question in the field, posed in 1949 by Oscar Zariski.

Vedika Khemani, associate professor at Stanford University, was celebrated for her pioneering contributions to non-equilibrium quantum matter, notably her discovery of time-crystals, which may hold significance for quantum computing.

Also read: Infosys Announces Winners of 2023 Prizes Across Six Categories

The Infosys Prize, the largest science and research award in India, has gained international prestige, with past winners going on to receive honours such as the Nobel Prize, Fields Medal and MacArthur ‘genius’ Grant.

Reflecting on this year’s awards, ISF president Kris Gopalakrishnan noted, “This year, we refocused to reward early career researchers under the age of 40, recognising their immense potential and the promise of paradigm-changing work.”

Founded in 2009, the Infosys Science Foundation is a not-for-profit trust that annually awards the Infosys Prize to honour achievements across six research categories. The prize serves to promote scientific excellence and recognise contributions that significantly impact human life. Each laureate receives a gold medal, citation and $100,000 to support their work.

COP29: Developing Countries Other Than China Need Around $ 2.4 Trillion Each Year for Climate Action by 2030

Another report published on November 14 suggests that India through its new NDC targets will have to cut emissions from a current scenario of 135-150% above 2005 levels, to a drastic 18% by 2035, if it hopes to achieve the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C per the Paris Agreement.

Bengaluru: As negotiations on finances rage on at the ongoing UN climate talks at Baku, Azerbaijan, a report published at COP29 on November 14 by the COP’s Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance said that emerging markets and developing countries except China will need approximately US $ 2.4 trillion every year for climate action by 2030 of which US $ 1 trillion will have to come from external funds. And by 2035, this number will escalate to US $ 3.1-3.5 trillion, and external funding to US $ 1.3 trillion, the report said.

Another report released on the same day at the COP suggests that India’s upcoming new Nationally Determined Contributions or NDC targets will have to be ones that drastically cut emissions, if it hopes to achieve the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C per the Paris Agreement. To do so, India will have to implement NDCs that cut emissions that are 135-150% above 2005 levels as per its current NDC, to 18% by 2035.

On November 14, BASIC countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – asked developed countries to honour their commitments to provide climate finance rather than “diluting obligations” and also rejected attempts by the rich nations to shift their financial responsibilities. Meanwhile, Argentina has backed out of COP29, and France’s ecology minister has decided to give it a miss after the Azerbaijan president lashed out at France in his COP speech on Tuesday for France’s responses to the New Caledonia protests in May this year. The president had also claimed that oil and gas were a “gift from God”.

On November 13, China announced that it had voluntarily mobilised more than US $ 23 billion since 2016 to aid the clean energy transition in other developing countries. The US said on Wednesday that it was on track to meet the promised international public finance commitment of US $ 11 billion per year by the end of 2024.

Focus remains on more finance aid from developed countries

The ongoing 29th Conference of Parties or COP29 has been nicknamed the “Finance COP”, and among the money matters that are being discussed at Baku, Azerbaijan, since the event kicked off on November 11, is countries negotiating on a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) – the total funds that will be required by developing countries for climate action. Currently, it is USD 100 billion per year, till 2025.

As per a report published at COP29 by the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance (IHLEG) on November 14, emerging markets and developing countries (EMDCs) except China will need US $ 2.3-2.5 trillion every year to deal with climate change and its impacts by 2030. This number will climb to US $ 3.1-3.5 trillion by 2035. While countries can and are using their internal funds, external finance – from international public and private sources as well – will need to cover US $ 1 trillion per year of the total investment need by 2030 and around US $ 1.3 trillion by 2035.

The report, titled “Raising ambition and accelerating delivery of climate finance” is the third report of the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance which was constituted by the COP26 and COP27 presidencies, and aims to provide “an independent perspective on the climate finance agenda”, per the UNFCCC which organises the annual UN climate summits.

Also read: COP29 Kicks Off at Baku, Nations Agree to Carbon Credit Standards on Day 1

Of the around US $ 2.4 trillion required for climate action in ’emerging market and developing countries’ or EMDCs other than China, around US $ 1.6 trillion will be required for clean energy transition, US $ 0.25 trillion for adaptation and resilience, US $ 0.25 trillion for loss and damage, US $ 0.3 trillion for natural capital and sustainable agriculture, and US $ 0.04 trillion for ensuring just transition, the report noted.

“Ramping up climate investments in EMDCs is the only way to reach the Paris Agreement goals of limiting the global temperature increase to well below 2° Celsius and adapting to climate change, and arrest the accelerating threat to nature and biodiversity,” the report noted.

While South–South cooperation is already making “a significant contribution”, there is “great scope for enhanced support and financing from leading developing countries,” the report noted.

“The new climate finance ask reflects that in order to achieve tripling renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency goal, commitment from developed countries also need to increase multifold,” Vibhuti Garg, director, South Asia of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said in a statement responding to the findings of the IHLEG report.

“Also, it is not just the quantum but also the quality of finance,” she added. “There needs to be more commitment of concessional capital, increasing the availability of catalytic finance from MDBs [multilateral development banks] which can unlock private capital is required especially for nascent technologies. Most countries in the global south are already on the verge of debt trap so in order to help them transition faster, [the] new climate finance goal is [the] minimum that countries in [the] Global North need to commit to.”

World hurtling towards 2.7° C warming

An annual global temperature update by Climate Action Tracker (a project that tracks governmental climate action and measures it against the Paris Agreement’s aim of limiting warming to 1.5°C below 2005 levels, and ensuring that this remains below 2°C) also published on November 14 during COP29, suggests that current current climate action is still insufficient. It shows that global warming projections for the year 2100 based on current policies set the world on a path toward 2.7°C of warming – far higher than the agreed aims of the Paris Agreement.

Lead author of the report, Sofia Gonzales-Zuniga of Climate Analytics, a partner organisation of Climate Action Tracker or CAT, said that the current policy warming of 2.7° C was a median estimate with a 50% chance of being higher or lower.

“But our knowledge of the climate system tells us that there is a 33% chance of our projection being 3.0°C – or higher – and a 10% chance of being 3.6°C or higher, an absolutely catastrophic level of warming,” she said in a press release.

Photo: Climate Action Tracker, Warming Projections Global Update – November 2024.

The report found that while the deployment of renewable energy showed “record-breaking progress” over the past three years, fossil fuel subsidies still remain “at an all-time high” and funding for projects that prolong the use of fossil fuel quadrupled between 2021 and 2022. And despite the increasing emissions that the world is currently witnessing, the “exponential growth” of renewable energy means that emissions will decline faster after 2030.

“As the world edges closer to these dangerous climate thresholds, the need for immediate, stronger action to reverse this trend becomes ever more urgent…We have come to a critical point and COP29 is our last chance to keep 1.5°C alive,” the report said. “If countries fail to substantially increase the ambition of current 2030 targets and action, limiting peak global warming to 1.5°C will not be possible and would likely lead to a multidecadal, high overshoot of this limit, even if followed by strong post-2030 action and large-scale permanent removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.”

Regarding India, the update noted that the country’s progress towards achieving 50% non-fossil capacity ahead of schedule “shows potential for even more ambitious targets”.

“However, the challenge of meeting peak demand during non-solar hours, especially with excessive cooling demand due to extreme heat, underscores the need for significant investments in grid infrastructure and storage capacity, which are far below what is required,” it added. “International support will be crucial to help India access advanced technologies and accelerate its clean energy transition.”

India needs to propose new NDCs that drastically cut emissions: Report

Over the next few months, countries are also expected to update their NDCs for 2035, which are a set of long-term goals to cut carbon emissions and adapt to climate impacts that every country signatory to the Paris Agreement has to provide to the UNFCCC. The NDCs are updated every five years. Countries have already begun submitting their updated NDCs for 2035. The UAE’s NDC came in last week, and Brazil’s on November 13. The United Kingdom’s NDC released on November 12 is ambitious and pledges to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035, compared to 1990 levels.

A second report released by CAT on November 14 looked at what 10 countries could do to align their new 2035 NDC targets with the 1.5°C Paris Agreement goal. The 10 countries – China, the United States, the European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, UAE, Azerbaijan, Brazil and India – together accounted for a staggering 63% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2022.

India will have to set a 2035 target that will drastically cut down its emissions if it hopes to achieve the 1.5°C goal. That’s because India is still expanding its fossil fuel energy sources despite doing well in investing in renewable energy, the report noted.

“Despite substantial progress in rolling out renewables, India’s current policies support coal and its production, and imports reached a record high in the first half of 2024,” the report said.

Such continued expansion of coal-fired power is “a major driving force behind the upward trend of India’s current policy projections”, per the report. It predicts given India’s current conditional NDCs, India’s emissions will reach 4,273-4,529 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or MtCO2e, by 2035 (when you exclude the changes to land use and forests brought about by human activity that also play a role in releasing emissions). This amounts to 135-150% above 2005 levels. Per the report, India would have to curb these emissions to 2,100 MtCO2e in 2035 (or bring it down to 18% above 2005 levels) to meet the CAT’s models to limit warming within 1.5°C.

India still remains in the “highly insufficient” category when it comes to climate targets and action, per the CAT. Climate policies and commitments of countries under this category are, per the CAT, not consistent with the Paris Agreement’s mandate to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial times.

“Despite achieving substantial progress in installing renewable energy capacity and continuous decline in its tariff, India’s fossil fuel demand remains unchanged,” the India overview by the CAT reads. “Indeed, coal production and imports reached a record high in the first half of 2024 to meet the rise in seasonal electricity demand brought on by another year of record summer heat. This could be mitigated with faster rollout of renewables plus storage, both of which are cost-effective compared to fossil fuels in India.”

“Developed countries need to continue to supplement their domestic action with significant financial and other support for developing countries to constitute an equitable contribution to the 1.5°C limit,” Ana Missirliu of the NewClimate Institute, one of the authors of the CAT report, said in a press release. “Many developing countries can only achieve sufficient climate action with significant financial and other support. COP29 is where we need to see this financial commitment.”

Debates, and the finance goal framework

Developed countries must commit to providing at least US $ 1.3 trillion each year until 2030 to developing nations, India said on Thursday at COP29, at the sixth High-Level Dialogue on Climate Finance. Speaking on behalf of Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC), Indian negotiator Naresh Pal Gangwar said that the new climate finance package – the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) – which is currently under negotiation, cannot become an “investment goal”, PTI reported.

In the initial discussions regarding the framework for the NCQG, the G77 and China had called for funds from developed to developing countries and that new, additional, adequate, and affordable finance must address mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage. While the US opposed the inclusion of loss and damage, many developed countries also objected to including “new principles,” such as burden sharing among developed countries, the IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin reported. On November 12, the previously nine-page draft of the framework for the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) increased to 34 pages after chairs included all written comments from negotiators.

“After three years of preliminary talks, we had hoped to see a more streamlined text at this point, so this is frustrating…The good side is that a few stronger options were included. Now we need to see countries quickly building consensus over the next few days and streamline the text towards a final agreement that will deliver the scale of finance needed,” Fernanda Carvalho, WWF Global Climate and Energy Policy Lead, said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the G77 and China (the largest bloc representing around 130 countries) rejected the draft text of the framework, and other groups of developing countries, including the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) also backed them. On Wednesday, November 13, the COP29 released a new draft of the framework; COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev called it “a significant step” but pointed out that there are “still many options to be resolved”. For instance, the minimum funds that different blocs want each year for climate action vary greatly.

“We now want to hear everyone’s views and we will create spaces for them to provide their inputs throughout COP29. But the parties must remember that the clock is ticking and we only have 10 days left,” he said.

A revised draft also dropped on November 14 and is still under discussion. Also on November 14, BASIC countries including India said that developed countries should honour their commitments to provide climate finance rather than “diluting obligations”. The bloc also underscored that it was time to fully and effectively implement the Paris Agreement, and rejected attempts by developed countries to weaken their responsibility to provide finance.

A “robust NCQG that addresses climate insecurity while building strong, sustainable economies” is one of the “key negotiated outcomes” that needs to be concluded at the COP, US climate envoy for COP29 John Podesta had said on November 13 at COP29.

“It should be multi-layered with an ambitious, realistically achievable support layer involving new contributors…underpinned by a set of qualitative elements that evolve the international financial architecture, enhance access to finance for developing countries, and improve debt sustainability,” he had said.

Podesta also said in his speech that the US was on track to meet former president Joe Biden’s “ambitious international public finance commitment” of US $ 11 billion per year by the end of 2024.

On Tuesday, November 12, Chinese vice-premier, Ding Xuexiang, said that China has spent RMB 177 billion (USD 24.5 billion) to support other countries’ climate clean energy transitions since 2016.

“Gifts of God”

On Tuesday, Azerbaijan president Aliyev had also said that Oil and gas are a “gift of god”. He said that countries “should not be blamed” for having resources including oil and gas, and that they “should not be blamed for bringing the resources to the market, because the market needs them”.

Azerbaijan has already been under the scanner after a senior official linked with COP29 seemed to have used his role at the COP to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals, the BBC reported last week. It reported that the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, had discussed “investment opportunities” in the state oil and gas company with a person posing as a potential investor, and was additionally quoted as saying that Azerbaijan had a “lot of gas fields that are to be developed”.

Aliyev on Tuesday at COP29 blamed “Western media” for spreading “fake news”, and claimed that after Azerbaijan was elected as the host of COP29, they “became a target of a coordinated, well-orchestrated campaign of slander and blackmail”.

COP29 exits

Meanwhile, the past two days have also witnessed Argentina exiting from attending the COP, and the French ecology minister deciding not to come at all.

On November 13, France’s minister for ecology Agnes Pannier-Runacher – who was supposed to travel to Baku to attend COP29 – announced that she was canceling her visit, after she called Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev’s comments at the opening of COP29 in Baku against France and Europe as being “unacceptable.”

Apart from his comment that oil and gas were ‘gifts from God’, Aliyev had also hit out at France for its reaction to protests in New Caledonia in May this year, in his speech. Le Monde reported that Aliyev had alleged that France’s handling of protests in the French overseas territory constituted “crimes” and “human rights violations”.

Aliyev’s comments were a “flagrant violation of the code of conduct” for the UN climate talks, Pannier-Runacher said, as she canceled her visit to Baku.

On November 13, Argentinian negotiators were told to return from COP29 by the Argentina government.

However, the Argentina government has withdrawn from the COP29 negotiations, not the treaty, Argentinian-born Anabella Rosemberg, senior advisor at the NGO Climate Action Network-International, told sources on the ground.

“So it is largely symbolic and all it does is remove the country from critical conversations going on climate finance. It’s difficult to understand how a climate vulnerable country like Argentina would cut itself from critical support being negotiated here at COP29,” she said.

Less Than a Third of People Suffering from Diabetes Get Treatment in India, World’s Diabetes Capital

As per a Lancet study, only 27.8% and 29.3% of the entire cohort of women and men suffering from the disease in India have any treatment coverage.

New Delhi: The diabetes rates among men and women in India has gone up by 10-12 percentage points in 2022 as compared to its prevalence in 1980, a new study by Lancet released on November 13 says.

Currently, 21.4% of men and 23.7% of women of India suffer from diabetes. India has historically been the diabetes capital of the world. The latest study pegs the total number of diabetes cases in India at 212 million. This accounts for 26% of total diabetes cases in the world – the highest proportion contributed by any country.

But what is more worrying is that a majority of diabetes patients are not receiving any treatment in India.

As per this study, only 27.8% of the entire cohort of women suffering from the disease have any treatment coverage. Similarly, only 29.3% of men receive treatment.

Treatment coverage has only minimally improved in the last 44 years, despite India now having a dedicated treatment and prevention plan for diabetes incidence. The treatment coverage for women and men in 1980 were 21.6% and 25.3% respectively.

India contributes to 30% of the world’s untreated diabetes cases – the highest, again. This amounts to 133 million people.

China has 78 million untreated cases – the second highest. The difference between the country contributing the highest and the second highest number of such cases is more than 50%.

Pakistan and Indonesia have 24 million and 18 million diabetes cases that are not under any sort of treatment coverage.

“We also found that the current variations in treatment were largely related to the extent of diabetes under diagnosis, which means that improving case detection is a prerequisite to increasing treatment coverage,” the study’s authors say.

The Lancet assessment also points out that countries in South Asia are not doing enough to prevent the early onset of diabetes. It said:

“In countries with universal health insurance and good access to primary care, people at a high risk of diabetes might also be identified early and advised to use a combination of diet and lifestyle modifications and medicines to prevent or delay diabetes onset. This approach is less widely used in low-resourced health systems with limited attention to, or resources for, diabetes screening.”

Genetic and phenotypic (environmental factors) differences also contribute to a country’s having a higher diabetes population than other countries. But this becomes all the more relevant in countries in South Asia, where these factors are also accompanied by weight gain due to childhood nutrition choices and foetal development.

India accounts for the second-highest proportion of obese children in the world after China, a paper published in 2022 had noted.

The report also pitches for increasing the financial accessibility of people towards buying healthy food like fruits and vegetables. This is important for countries like India, because the last ‘State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’ report said that as many as half of Indians (55%) are not able to afford a healthy diet.

“Improving affordability and accessibility of healthy foods and sports is particularly important for poorer families and marginalised communities, and requires measures such as targeted cash transfers, subsidies or vouchers for healthy foods,” the authors say.

The report advocates that countries must levy a higher rate of taxes on foods containing refined carbohydrates that lead to weight gain.

“In addition to obesity, the consumption of specific foods might influence the risk of diabetes. For example, yoghourt and possibly some other forms of dairy, whole grains, and green leafy vegetables reduce the risk of diabetes, whereas refined carbohydrates, including in sugar-sweetened beverages, increase this risk,” the study notes.

Southeast Asia Needs $190 Billion Annually to Meet Clean Energy Goals

Annual average energy investment over the last three years was $72 billion.

Financing has long been recognised as a barrie r to accelerating decarbonisation in Southeast Asia.

A successful transition to a low-carbon economy – especially in the region’s low- and middle-income countries – will rely heavily on two things.

The first is international concessional finance and the second, stronger climate targets to accelerate investor interest.

Both are expected to be determined at COP29.

Countries must update their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by February 2025 under the terms of the Paris Agreement and leaders will announce the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), a new set of financing commitments to support developing countries in their climate actions post 2025.

Required finance could fall short

While most countries in Southeast Asia now have ambitious long-term clean energy goals, the investments required to meet these targets are not yet on track.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the region attracts only 2% of global clean energy investment despite accounting for 6% of global GDP, 5% of global energy demand and being home to 9% of the world’s population.

Annual average energy investment over the last three years was $72 billion. The IEA’s ‘Net Zero Emissions’ (NZE) scenario calls for $190 billion in annual investment from 2026–2030.

Developing countries require far more funding than current levels to adopt green technologies at scale and deploy adaptation measures. Many developing country NDCs include “conditional” climate pledges, which they say are only attainable with international support.

Of the $4.5 trillion developing countries say is needed, one-third is linked to conditional pledges. There are significant differences between conditional and unconditional targets in the existing NDCs submitted to the UNFCCC by most Southeast Asian countries.

For instance, the Philippines’ unconditional target is a 2.71% emissions “reduction and avoidance,” while its conditional target is a 72.29% emissions reduction. In Vietnam, NDC targets are framed as large emissions reductions against a business-as-usual scenario: a 15.8% reduction unconditionally and 43.5% conditionally.

COP29 can accelerate decarbonisation

At COP29, leaders will negotiate financial contributions to support developing countries in tackling climate change.

Key points to monitor include the total amount of financing for developing countries and how it is accounted for.

For example, discussions centred on whether the last financing goal from COP15, which promised $100 billion annually, was met as reported by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

This is complicated by the fact that many of these financing commitments are repurposed from existing programme funds, meaning they are not ‘new and additional,’ and there is no clear distinction between grants and non-grants.

Lower- and middle-income countries in the region are primarily concerned about whether accelerating decarbonisation will lead to significant debt and create trade-offs with other important priorities, such as health and education.

These issues have already posed a real challenge to the implementation of Just Energy Transition Partnerships in Indonesia and Vietnam.

In addition to grants, concessional loans – those with more favourable terms than “market rate” – are also essential for accelerating Southeast Asia’s energy transition, as the region faces capital costs significantly higher than in industrialised nations.

The IEA suggests that the region could meet its energy transition goals with substantial increases in concessional financing from development finance institutions. This type of financing can lower the cost of capital and enhance the financial viability of clean energy projects, especially in emerging and “high-risk” markets.

In the IEA’s net zero scenario, an estimated $12 billion in concessional finance could be needed for the region by the early 2030s to support an accelerated uptake of clean energy technologies.

Also read: Trump Is President Again, and It’s Bad News For the Climate

Robust frameworks and targets needed

Financing accelerated energy transition in Southeast Asia will significantly depend on the strength and integration of the region’s climate policy framework, which would send long-term signals to mitigate risks for investors, including political, technology, currency and market risks.

A robust NDC target, aligned with policy frameworks can convey strong ‘push’ signals for investors. The robustness and alignment of different targets need to be supported by effective institutional and cross-ministerial governance arrangements to enable effective implementation.

Southeast Asian nations have an opportunity to strengthen their NDC targets and signal long-term and demonstrable ambition to mitigate market and political risks.

This, in turn, can help reduce capital costs and broaden the investment pool. It is also crucial to enhance sustainable finance policies, such as regional and national taxonomies, and to increase 1.5-degree-aligned climate reporting and ESG reporting standards.

Climate finance for Southeast Asia is critical for global transition

Southeast Asia is projected to account for a quarter of the growth in global energy demand over the next decade, driven by its expanding population and industrial growth.

To meet global climate goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, COP29 must see developed countries enhance their financing offers, while Southeast Asian nations need to present ambitious NDC targets supported by credible transition plans.

A second Trump administration could introduce uncertainties in meeting these goals, making international cooperation even more vital.

The international community must come together to support Southeast Asia – both as a key driver of global economic growth and as one of the regions most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Trang Nguyen is the Southeast Asia Lead at Climateworks Centre, an independent and non-profit organisation within Monash University. Trang is also a non-executive Director for the Asian Australians for Climate Solutions, a non-profit organisation working to increase climate change awareness and engagement among Asian Australian communities.

Net Zero Needs Women

Women do much of the hard work but have little say when it comes to strategy and decision-making.

Recognising the leadership role of women is essential to addressing climate change across the Indo-Pacific.

Women play a critical but often overlooked role in the transition to net-zero carbon emissions.

As the world grapples with the need to shift away from fossil fuels, the urgency of confronting climate change is an imperative for governments worldwide.

But in many communities across the Indo-Pacific, there is an imbalance for women between sustainable progress and gender equality.

Women do much of the hard work but have little say when it comes to strategy and decision-making.

The lack of recognition limits their access to essential resources such as land ownership, agricultural extension services and leadership opportunities, exacerbating harmful gender inequalities.

This means decision makers do not learn from their women’s innovations, reducing opportunities to address the climate crisis.

For example, women actively contribute to improving food security in their communities. As traditional knowledge holders of ecosystems, they are at the forefront of adaptation and climate resilience, actively participating in agrifood systems and the green economy.

Their engagement spans many kinds of work – agriculture, soil management, water harvesting and livestock management, which all directly aid food security for their communities. Their knowledge is a critical resource.

With COP29 getting underway and Gender Day taking place on November 21, there is a need for decision-makers to go beyond dialogue that merely highlights the need for gender-responsive action and to identify solutions that can meaningfully tackle the barriers hindering women’s participation and recognition in climate initiatives.

As stipulated by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council, this transition must be equitable, upholding the rights of vulnerable populations, particularly across the Global South, who are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.

Human rights concerns are increasingly prominent in Conference of the Parties (COP) discussions.

Women and girls are often the most vulnerable to climate impacts. This is particularly true in the Indo-Pacific, where women are disproportionately affected by the socio-economic impacts of natural disasters, such as more frequent and intense cyclones, sea-level rise, rising temperatures and loss of food sources.

Following the two tropical cyclones that hit Vanuatu within three days in March 2023, up to 90 percent of crops were destroyed in some provinces, contributing to food scarcity and rising food prices.

Ni-Vanuatu women had to replant their gardens to sell produce at the market, raising funds to rebuild houses lost in the cyclones and to feed children and elderly relatives.

Women are also more likely to suffer violence in the wake of disasters. Following the tropical cyclones in Vanuatu in 2011, rates of reported domestic violence increased by 300 percent.

Despite the disproportionate impacts on women, including decreased access to education and increased gender-based violence, systemic barriers hinder their leadership and voice in the transition to sustainability, as well as access to resources.

This marginalises their essential contributions to climate resilience and sustainable development, and the protection of women and girls in policy and action.

In the face of these challenges, many women are nonetheless leading sustainable transitions across the region, often in subversive, unpaid and grassroots ways, although this is not widely seen or financially recognised – counter to the principles of a just transition, which emphasise inclusivity and leaving no one behind.

Also read: COP29 Kicks Off at Baku, Nations Agree to Carbon Credit Standards on Day 1

Women’s vital role in just transitions

Female employment in agriculture across the Indo-Pacific region accounts for more than half the total labour force. In some countries, such as Laos, women make up more than 70 percent of the rural agricultural labour force, followed by 45 percent in Myanmar and 41 percent in Vietnam.

Beyond agriculture, women are increasingly involved in renewable energy transitions, with many working in small-scale solar and biomass energy projects that support local and rural economies, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and mitigating the impacts of environmental changes on food production and water supplies.

Yet women’s labour is often undervalued and unrecognised by governments. Their work is often viewed as an extension of unpaid care responsibilities. This includes essential caregiving roles within households, such as child care, elderly care and disability care, which are routinely overlooked and uncompensated.

Addressing these issues is crucial, as highlighted in the COP28 agenda, which emphasised the need for gender-responsive approaches to climate action, including learning from lived experience and local innovation.

Gender Action Plan at COP28

The Gender Responsive Just Transitions Climate Action Partnership, launched last year at COP28 and endorsed by 82 member states, marks a significant step towards integrating gender-responsive approaches into climate action. It emphasises that women’s leadership, participation and access to financial and social protections are key to ensuring equitable transitions that uplift entire communities.

However, global reports, such as those by UN Women, ASEAN Gender Outlook 2024 and the Food and Agriculture Organization, reveal that women are underrepresented in policy and leadership positions across sectors critical to just transitions.

Furthermore, gender-responsive climate negotiations and policy discussions can be fraught; delegates were unable to conclude discussions at the 2024 Bonn Conference, with limited commitment to gender equality demonstrated among some parties.

In the Pacific, women have played a major role in climate adaptation and a low-carbon economy, particularly with the male workforce being diverted to Australia and New Zealand as part of the Pacific Australia Labour Scheme (PALM) and the Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme in New Zealand (RSE).

In Vanuatu, women’s networks were mobilised in the lead-up to and aftermath the 2023 twin cyclones – for example, through a women-led early warning and disaster response messaging system which alerted up to 40 percent of the population; and the widespread distribution of 17 tonnes of local food crops from resilience gardens that had been harvested by women across communities.

Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership framework, for instance, outlines a pathway for transitioning to renewable energy and highlights the importance of inclusivity, including a focus on addressing gender equality.

While fast-growing economies like Indonesia are making serious commitments in mainstreaming gender in just transitions, the framework does not yet encompass the tangible measures to address and support women’s leadership, decision-making and recognise their labour, or address the systemic barriers they face, both economically and socially.

From commitments to action

Recognising women’s role at the forefront of just transitions and as agents of community resilience, means prioritising women’s leadership in decision-making processes and acknowledging their critical contributions to driving sustainable change, particularly as many of their livelihoods are tied to renewable and green jobs.

Women-led initiatives such as the Women I Tok Tok Tugeta (WITTT) Network in Vanuatu, one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, leverages local knowledge and expertise to enhance community resilience against climate change.

By empowering women to take leadership roles in climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, the WITTT Network fosters sustainable practices, ensures that women’s voices are prioritised in decision-making processes, and promotes the implementation of effective solutions to address challenges faced by their communities, including preventing gender-based violence, improving disability rights, disaster management and safeguarding community health.

Additionally, with a focus on gender-responsive solutions, governments need to recognise women for their unpaid and largely unseen contributions by addressing women’s care role and compensating for time poverty, prioritising their access to financial and social protection programmes such as cash-plus programmes and climate insurance.

These programmes could enable women to access the resources and platforms needed to meaningfully engage in labour markets and decision making, while balancing caregiving responsibilities and sustainability leadership roles in our region.

Gabriela Fernando, based at Monash University, Indonesia, specialises in Global Health. Her research focuses on the intersections of women’s health and equity, gender equality, climate change and health, and poverty, with an emphasis on South and Southeast Asia.

Jessica Walters is a Palawa woman and Project Coordinator of the Citarum Action Research Program (CARP) at the Monash Sustainable Development Institute. Personally involved in the agriculture, forestry and aquaculture industries, her research is at the intersection of earth and social sciences, focusing on the impacts of a changing climate on local communities.

Susie Ho is the Academic Director in the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience) and the Designated Contact Point for the UNFCCC at Monash University. Her research explores the intersection of sustainability education and employability, aiming to cultivate future strategic leaders capable of driving social and environmental impact.

Sarah Gosper is the Deputy Director of the Global Immersion Guarantee Program at Monash University. Her research focuses on gender and international development, with a particular emphasis on gender-based violence in the Asia-Pacific and masculinities in China.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.

COP29 Kicks Off at Baku, Nations Agree to Carbon Credit Standards on Day 1

With 2015 to 2024 on track to be the warmest ten years on record, and 2024, the warmest year ever, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization issued another ‘Red Alert’ on the first day of COP29.

New Delhi/ Bengaluru: On Monday, November 11, the 29th Conference of Parties (COP) — the United Nations’ largest annual climate conference — kicked off at Baku, Azerbaijan. The 11 day-long event, which government leaders and representatives will attend to discuss, negotiate, and pledge to implement ways to tackle the issue of climate change, will also witness participation from civil society, environmental and rights groups and individuals.

More than 32,000 people from across 198 countries have registered to attend the COP this year. Day One of COP29 witnessed parties agreeing to the proposed carbon credit standards, which will set the stage for the use of UN-backed international carbon credits worldwide. However, there has been some concern in the way the standards were pushed through even weeks before the COP.

COP29 kicks off

Nicknamed the “Finance COP”, COP29 is also the first time that nations will be required to reach an agreement on the New Collective Quantified Goal, an updated amount that developed nations must mobilise annually to support climate action in developing countries, beginning in 2025. Trillions of dollars will be required, but though these “numbers” – funds for climate action – “may sound big but they are nothing compared to the cost of inaction,” new COP29 president, Mukhtar Babayev, said as he took over from the UAE presidency at Baku on November 11.

The world must agree on a new global climate finance goal, said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell in his opening remarks at COP29.

“An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every single nation, including the largest and wealthiest,” Steill said. “But it’s not enough to just agree on a goal. We must work harder to reform the global financial system. Giving countries the fiscal space they so desperately need.”

According to Steill, the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) process – the COP – is “the only place we have to address the rampant climate crisis, and to credibly hold each other to account to act on it”.

Stiell also added that at COP29, international carbon markets have to be “up and running”, through the finalisation of Article 6. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement details how countries can cooperate, voluntarily, to reach their climate targets, and enables international cooperation to do so, especially through enabling financial support for developing countries. Article 6.4 pertains to setting up a UN-backed carbon credit system to achieve this goal. Carbon credits, however, come with numerous problems.

Experts have noted how such credits are being used to “greenwash” businesses and large corporations; many projects also overstate the emissions they claim to cut; several exist only on paper; many carbon trading projects have also not benefited local communities that actually implement them. An investigation into the work of Verra (a company that certifies voluntary carbon offsets whose buyers include companies such as Disney) by The Guardian and two other organisations found in January last year that more than 90% of the company’s rainforest offset credits are likely “phantom credits”, and do not represent real carbon reductions on ground. Two months later, Verra said it would be phasing out and replacing this rainforest offsets scheme by mid-2025. There are examples even from India: though tribal communities in 333 villages in Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh grew plantations on their private lands, they did not benefit from it monetarily, as The Wire reported in February this year.

Also read: COP28 Draws to a Close, 23 Hours Overtime: Historic but Also Disappointing, Say Experts

Early skirmishes; carbon credit standards okayed

And yet, on Day 1 of COP29 itself, nations agreed to the proposed carbon credit quality standards: an early deal pushed through by the Azerbaijan presidency on the first day, just as the UAE presidency pulled off the formal approval of the financial mechanisms of the Loss and Damage Fund on the first day of COP28 at Dubai, as The Wire had reported last year.

But apart from the issues surrounding the use of carbon credits itself, experts have raised concerns regarding the way that the standards were pushed forward on Day 1 of COP29. Weeks before the COP, the Supervisory Body of Article 6.4 – the subsection within Article 6 that talks of carbon credit markets – “pushed through two standards to operationalize & expand carbon markets, circumventing governmental authority + stepping out of its mandate” as the Azerbaijan presidency sought to “speed up the endorsement of new standards on carbon markets”, said Sebastian Duyck, senior attorney for the Center for International Environmental Law’s Climate & Energy Programme, in a post on X on November 11.

“This is extremely alarming. If this moves forward, it would be a real cop-out by governmental delegations gathered in Baku,” he tweeted, just before nations agreed to the standards.

Reuters quoted COP negotiators raising concerns about how the deal was inked – with a small group of technical experts taking decisions and many countries claiming that they were not consulted adequately.

The opening plenary of COP29 on the morning November 11 was also paused, and pushed to the evening, when it was again delayed by several hours due to a disagreement over the COP29 agenda – over the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

The CBAM – essentially a kind of carbon tax that the EU imposes on select, imported emission-intensive products such as iron and steel, cement, aluminium and fertilisers – requires that the importer of goods 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 will 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. In 2019, the largest countries of origin of the EU’s CBAM imports were Russia, China, Turkey, UK, Ukraine and India. 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 – the countries have raised concerns regarding the impacts this will have on their economies.

Around a week ago, China submitted concerns on behalf of the BASIC countries – including India, Brazil and South Africa – to the UNFCCC that talks about “unilateral restrictive trade measures” be added to the COP29 agenda.

“BASIC is of the view that UNFCCC Parties are obligated to send a clear and strong signal of commitment to multilateralism and global cooperation as the most effective and just manner to respond to climate change and consider concerns with unilateral trade-restrictive measures based on climate objectives, while calling on all partners to strive for cooperative solutions and partnerships for stimulating the production and trade access for sustainable goods and services in line with existing legal provisions,” the letter read.

This was what caused the delay in the plenary on Day 1 of COP29, as countries including India and China argued with developed nations over including the unilateral trade measures in the COP29 talks.

“COP29 should push all parties to abandon unilateral measures, including those implemented by the United States and Europe, and strengthen solidarity and cooperation,” Xia Yingxian, China’s Climate negotiator and Director, Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said in a statement.

Also read: Deaths, Destruction on the Rise Due to Extreme Weather Events: Grim Statistics in India Climate Report 2024

Notably, Afghanistan is also at COP29 — for the first since the Taliban came back to power in 2021. Matuil Haq Khalis, head of Afghanistan’s environment protection agency, told The Associated Press that the country has prepared national action plans to deal with climate change and would be updating its climate goals within the next few months. As the Taliban is not officially recognised as the government of Afghanistan, the country’s delegation will only have “observer” status at the climate talks, AP reported.

India at COP29

Meanwhile, a source in the union government said on November 11 that the Indian delegation at the conference will be led by Kirti Vardhan Singh, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Also attending the conference are Leena Nandan (Secretary, MoEF) who will be the Deputy Leader of the delegation, Naresh Pal Gangwar (Additional Secretary) who will be the Lead Negotiator and Neelesh Sah (Joint Secretary), Deputy Lead Negotiator. The source said that details of other members of the Indian delegation were “not available” yet.

The PTI quoted several delegates as saying that India would focus on accountability, green credits, fair financing and incremental goals for its developing economy. An unnamed delegate told the PTI that India would hold developed nations accountable for climate finance, enhancing resilience for vulnerable communities and advancing an equitable energy transition.

The news report also reiterated that India will not host a pavilion at COP29; The Wire has not yet received a response confirming this though it reached out to the union environment ministry and officials including Leena Nandan regarding this last week.

On November 10, Evans Njewa, Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Climate Group – which includes 45 countries including India and China – demanded urgent, “scaled up, new, additional, and easily accessible climate finance”. These should be delivered as grants, not loans; and they should be in trillions, not billions, the Chair said.

“Through partially costed estimates, the LDCs alone are in need of at least US$ 1 trillion by 2030 to implement our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). A failure to conclude COP29 without a bold new finance goal would be a tragic disservice to both the planet and vulnerable populations,” Njewa said.

2024 will be warmest year on record: WMO report

The WMO, a body under the UN, had issued a “Red Alert” to the world earlier this year, because the world had never been so close to the 1.5° C lower limit of the Paris Agreement on climate change, its Secretary-General Celeste Saulo had said. The report released in March this year confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year to be recorded ever since climate records began in 1850.

But now, 2024 is all set to earn that dubious distinction.

On November 11, the World Meteorological Organization released its latest report, the State of the Climate Update 2024, aimed to deliver key messages to policymakers as the COP kicks off. Per the report, data shows that greenhouse gases – which reached record levels in 2023 – continued to rise in 2024. Global mean surface air temperature was around 1.54 Degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels from January to September this year. Antarctic and Arctic sea ice extents too in 2024 have both been well below average, per the report, while ocean heat content, as well as sea levels have continued to rise. From 2014-2023, the global mean sea level rose at a rate of 4.77 mm per year: more than double the rate from 1993-2002 (which was around 2.13 mm/yr. In 2023, the ocean absorbed around 3.1 million terawatt hours of heat, equal to around 18 times the world’s total energy consumption, per the report.

The report said that 2015 to 2024 will be the warmest ten years on record, and 2024, the warmest year ever. Hence the WMO has issued yet another “Red Alert”.

“As monthly and annual warming temporarily surpass 1.5°C, it is important to emphasize that this does NOT mean that we have failed to meet Paris Agreement goal to keep the long- term global average surface temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the warming to 1.5°C….However, it is essential to recognize that every fraction of a degree of warming matters. Whether it is at a level below or above 1.5°C of warming, every additional increment of global warming increases climate extremes, impacts and risks,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo in a press release.

‘Climate fight won’t stop under Trump’

US climate envoy John Podesta, who leads the US delegation at COP29, said on Monday evening at the conference that the climate fight would not stop with Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. Podesta has also been senior adviser to the US President for clean energy innovation and implementation since October 2022.

While the United States government under Trump “may put climate action on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States with commitment and passion and belief,” said Podesta.

Trump has pledged to deregulate the energy sector and pull the nation from the Paris Climate Agreement (Trump took the US off the Agreement in 2017). Yet “this is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet,” Podesta said.

Deaths, Destruction on the Rise Due to Extreme Weather Events: Grim Statistics in India Climate Report 2024

Per the Report, India witnessed extreme weather events on 255 of the 274 days of the first nine months of this year, and these killed more than 3,200 people.

Bengaluru: More than 3,200 people dead. As much as 3.2 million hectares of crops damaged, around 2.3 lakh houses and buildings destroyed, and more than 9,400 livestock dead: all due to extreme weather events that occurred on 255 of the 274 days of the first nine months of this year across India.

These are some of the alarming statistics published in the latest India Climate Report 2024, launched virtually on November 8 by the Centre for Science and Environment and its fortnightly publication, Down to Earth.

This year, India witnessed the highest number of extreme weather events, when compared to the past two years during which CSE and DTE have been publishing the India Climate Reports, which detail the number of such events based on data including daily reports released by the India Meteorological Department. For instance, the India Climate Report 2023 reported extreme weather events on 235 of the 273 days in the first nine months of 2023; 2,923 people died that year, and the events damaged croplands spanning 1.84 million hectares. Hence, the frequency and impacts of extreme weather events are increasing with every year, the 2024 India Climate Report noted.

Tracking extreme weather events

As greenhouse gases emitted due to the use of fossil fuels warm up the world, climate is changing in many regions. Many places are far hotter than they used to be; many others witness more heavy rainfall than usual. These climate extremes are often marked by severe impacts on people and the environment, and are called extreme weather events. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines extreme weather events as those that are rare at a particular place and time of year.

India too witnesses its share of extreme weather events. These range from intense rainfall to heatwaves. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) classifies lightning and thunderstorms, heavy to very heavy, and extremely heavy rainfall, landslides and floods, coldwaves, heatwaves, cyclones, snowfall, dust and sandstorms, squalls, hailstorms and gales as extreme weather events.

An image released by the NDRF showing rescue work in Bengal after Cyclone Remal. Photo: X/NDRF

Researchers at the Centre for Science and Environment and its publication Down to Earth have been compiling extreme weather events across India for the past three years to make sense of patterns and trends. For this, they bank on daily and monthly climate reports released by the IMD, data released by the Disaster Management Division (DMD) of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, and media reports (to track events during the pre-monsoon period, from March to May, and the losses that occurred during this time including crop area affected).

More extreme events, deaths, losses this year

They found that India faced extreme weather events on 93% of the days in the first nine months of this year (from January 1 to September 30, 2024). This translates to extreme events occurring on 255 out of a total 274 days. These events – ranging from lightning and storms to heavy rain, floods, landslides and heat waves – claimed the lives of 3,238 people during this time. The events also affected 3.2 million hectares of crops, destroyed 2,35,862 houses and buildings, and killed 9,457 livestock across the country.

In 2024, extreme events occurred over 35 of all 36 states and union territories in India. This year, 27 states and UTs recorded an increase in the number of days that they experienced extreme weather events when compared to the last two years. Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh experienced 40 or more additional days of extreme weather events this year. Kerala recorded the highest number of deaths caused due to extreme events (550), followed by Madhya Pradesh (353 deaths) and Assam (256 deaths). The most number of houses were damaged (85,806) in Andhra Pradesh, and the largest crop area that was affected was in Maharashtra.

An image shared on social media, of the 2024 Assam floods. Photo: X/@TUKKUSAURUS

India experienced heatwaves on 77 of 274 days during the nine months and 210 people died due to these high temperatures across the country. During the monsoon season – from June to September – India witnessed extreme events on all days, and these were spread across 35 states and UTs. Heavy rains, floods and landslides occurred on all 122 days during this period; lightning and storms followed next, occurring on 103 days during this period. Among states, Assam was the worst-hit during this season, as it witnessed extreme weather events on 111 days. Totally, 2,716 people died due to extreme events during the monsoon season across the country, and 3.04 million ha of crops were damaged.

The year also witnessed several climate records being breached across the country. January 2024 was India’s ninth driest since 1901. In February, the country recorded its second-highest minimum temperature in 123 years. India recorded the highest minimum temperatures in July, August and September, the highest since 1901. East and Northeast India recorded its 12th driest July in 123 years.

This year, the IMD began releasing data on warm nights, a phenomenon when minimum night temperatures remain unusually high instead of dipping: when the maximum temperature has reached 40°C and the minimum temperature is 4.5°C to 6.4°C above normal. This is particularly damaging for peoples’ health, as the human body does not get time to cool down even on warm days. Between March and June 2024, 17 states and Union Territories recorded warm-night events. Five states and UTs – Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh – experienced unusually high night temperatures during mid-June. Of these, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Haryana each recorded four consecutive “severe warm nights” from June 15 to June 18, a new climate extreme.

The need for more comprehensive data

However, there is a data concern: though the IMD has begun releasing data on warm nights, its definition for this phenomenon is “difficult to follow as it does not provide an absolute temperature threshold” unlike what a lot of other countries do, the India Climate Report 2024 noted.

It is also difficult to assess losses and damages caused by extreme weather events due to lack of comprehensive data provided by the DMD as it has also stopped providing cumulative data since 2024. Such “…incomplete data collection on event-specific losses, particularly public property and crop damage” could therefore mean that many of the figures in the report could well be an underestimate, the India Climate Report 2024 noted.

Moreover, the increase in the frequency and impact of extreme weather events demands that more comprehensive data be made available, the report pointed out. For instance, the number of days that India has witnessed extreme weather events has steadily risen from 2022 to 2024. In 2022, it was 86% of the days in the first nine months; this increased to 88% in 2023 and is now 93% in 2024. The human and economic losses have also increased: 3,238 people died in 2024 when compared to 2,755 in 2022, which amounts to an 18% spike in just three years, the report said.

Such “grim news” is coming in at a time when three things are happening, said Sunita Narain, CSE director general and editor of Down To Earth, at the virtual launch of the report on November 8. One is the news of just a few days ago that Donald Trump, a “climate skeptic” has come back to power; the second is that we are at a “time of desperation” when we are close to breaching the guard rail of limiting warming to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels; and third, that the impacts of climate change are no longer “a boardroom issue” and one that is “hitting the poorest of the poor”, Narain said.

A man covers his face during extreme heat in Delhi. Photo: Atul Ashok Howale/The Wire

“These record-breaking statistics reflect climate change’s impact, where events that used to occur once every century are now happening every five years or even less,” Narain said in a press release. “This frequency is overwhelming the most vulnerable populations, who lack the resources to adapt to this relentless cycle of loss and damage.”

Many of the impacts of extreme weather events are also due to “bad development” apart from their increased frequencies, Narain said at the virtual launch.

“So if Kerala had the worst landslides possible, it was also because Kerala, in many parts of the Western Ghats, is still building stone quarries and still doing (sic) development as if there is no tomorrow. It is the same with the Himalayas, the same with the city of Delhi. If we have floods in Delhi, it is not only because we have high rainfall in Delhi, it is because we have destroyed our lakes, ponds and drains in our cities.”

Money Matters: Developed Countries Have to Drastically Hike Their Funding for Adaptation, Says UNEP Report

The UNEP Adaptation Gap Report estimates that the current adaptation finance gap is currently between US $ 187-359 billion per year, and though adaptation finance has increased from 2021 to 2022 to developing countries, it is still not enough.

New Delhi: Developed countries need to drastically increase their funding to developing nations for adaptation measures to tackle climate change, as per the United Nations Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report released on November 7.

This year’s UNEP Adaptation Gap Report titled ‘Come Hell and High Water’ estimates that the current adaptation finance gap is currently between US $ 187-359 billion per year. It also noted that international adaptation finance flows from developed countries to developing ones increased from US $ 22 billion in 2021 to US $ 28 billion in 2022, which per the report is “the largest absolute and relative year-on-year increase since the Paris Agreement”. However, this is still not enough, the Report highlighted. Even achieving the Glasgow Climate Pact goal of doubling adaptation finance to at least US $ 38 billion by 2025 would only cut the current adaptation finance gap by about 5%, the report noted.

“We need developed countries to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025 – an important step to closing the finance gap. We need to unlock a new climate finance goal at COP29,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message.

Developing countries are struggling with increasing debt burdens, and nations have to increase ambitions and adopt a strong New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance at COP29, the report also said. The NCQG, which is part of the 2015 Paris Agreement, aims at setting a new financial target to support developing countries in their climate actions post-2025.

The UNEP report also highlighted that there was a huge opportunity for private sector investments; currently, only around one third of the adaptation finance gap is in areas typically financed by the private sector.

“In addition to finance, there is a need to strengthen capacity-building and technology transfer, and to enhance the effectiveness of adaptation actions,” the UNEP report noted. Among the report’s recommendations are that adaptation strategies be developed based on a holistic understanding of the needs of the country rather than from the perspective of pushing forward a particular technology.

Around 87% of the countries have at least one national adaptation planning instrument, and 50% have two or more. However, the National Adaptation Plans and Nationally Determined Contributions of nations have to be more aligned, the report found. The question of who is eventually paying for adaptation is not being adequately addressed in the current discussion on adaptation financing, the report noted; in most cases, it is the developing countries themselves that are paying for it, the report noted.

“Climate change is already devastating communities across the world, particularly the most poor and vulnerable. Raging storms are flattening homes, wildfires are wiping out forests, and land degradation and drought are degrading landscapes,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, in a press release. “People, their livelihoods and the nature upon which they depend are in real danger from the consequences of climate change. Without action, this is a preview of what our future holds and why there simply is no excuse for the world not to get serious about adaptation, now.”