India will nudge west to keep promise on climate finance: Amitabh Kant

India will nudge developed nations and multilateral institutions to live up to their promise of climate financing while also emphasizing on women-led development at the top level G20 meetings to be held later this year, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said.

India has taken over the G20 presidency and will hold over 200 meetings across 56 cities in the next few months culminating with the PM-level meeting in Delhi in the second half of 2023.

"The promise of climate finance is not being lived up to by the developed world. It is important to have the flow of resources from multilateral institutions, besides the $100 billion funding from the developed countries. Nudging them is a key part of the agenda for the honorable Prime Minister," Kant said.


Kant was addressing the third annual lecture of the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI) on Friday. According to Kant, another key focus area for the Prime Minister is an emphasis on women-led development. "The challenge is to ensure that we break out of the cycle of malnutrition, improve health outcomes, especially of pregnant women and ensure greater levels of financial inclusion," he added.

Kant said India's focus would be on highlighting the need to address climate crisis, progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals' (SDG), global debt, geopolitical tensions and the ensuing food and energy crisis.

"There will be a renewed push for green development and climate finance, with the concept of Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) woven in," he said.

Reiterating that India has taken over the G20 presidency at the time of multiple crises facing the world, Kant exuded confidence that the G20 nations can together turn it into an opportunity. "India has taken over the G20 presidency, where there are multiple crises facing the world-economic, inflation, geo-political, energy, global debt, war, post-COVID impact," he said.

"To my mind every crisis has a huge opportunity and the G20 in the past has demonstrated the ability to deliver in times of adversity," he said.