BASIC nations urge developed countries to fulfill their climate finance commitments

NEW DELHI: With issue of finance being considered a major sticking point in negotiations ahead of future climate summit, the BASIC nations - Brazil, South Africa, India and China - on Saturday jointly urged developed countries to fulfill their climate finance commitments of mobilizing $100 billion annually by 2020 for developing countries on a grant basis and in a transparent manner.


“This support should be new and additional, and over and above their 0.7% of Gross National Product (GNP) commitment with respect to Official Development Assistance (ODA),” said a joint statement of the BASIC nations after their ministerial meeting on climate change at Sao Paulo, Brazil.


Under the Green Climate Fund (GCF) mechanism, the developed countries are expected to jointly mobilize $100 billion per year by 2020, from a variety of sources, to address the mitigation and adaptation needs of developing countries.

Keeping in view low contributions to the GCF by developed countries, the BASIC nations noted with concern the “insufficiency and inadequacy” of the support provided by developed countries to date and urged them to quickly make adequate provision of finance to facilitate effective implementation of Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement.

“Brazil, South Africa, India and China put together has one-third of world’s geographical area and nearly 40% of the world’s population and when we unitedly speak in one voice this shows our determination and the BASIC group could play an important part in making Paris Agreement accepted by all the countries in its true letter and spirit,” said Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar who represented India at the meeting.

He noted that the joint statement has highlighted all the issues which are relevant today and the world must take note of what BASIC is saying ahead of the UNSG’s climate action summit in New York next month and the Conference of Parties (CoP25) in Chile in December.

The BASIC ministers in their joint statement also highlighted the significant gaps in pre-2020 climate efforts of developed countries not only in mitigation, but also in adaptation and support to developing countries.

Urging developed countries to undertake ambitious actions to reduce emissions and fulfill their finance commitments, including in the pre-2020 period, in light of their historical responsibilities, the ministers underlined that the “implementation gaps” (on the part of rich nations) should not present a burden to developing countries in the post-2020 period.

The ministers also urged developed countries to provide “adequate and predictable means of implementation” to developing countries to enable them to achieve their climate goals.

“In this respect, developed countries are called upon to enhance support to developing countries for actions related to project or programme development and implementation, including on adaptation, mitigation and transparency. This must be done through adequate provision of finance, technology transfer, and capacity building to facilitate the effective implementation of the Convention (UNFCCC), its Kyoto Protocol and its Paris Agreement,” said the joint statement.