'COP26 should be for delivery of concrete actions on finance, technology transfer'

New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) Days ahead of the COP26, India has yet again reiterated that efforts to avoid emissions during development process are tied to the availability and level of international financing and technology transfer since most of the developing countries still face complex developmental challenges.

"Even India's climate actions have so far been largely financed from domestic resources. Maximum share of India's current climate finance comes from budgetary sources. A substantial scaling up of the climate action plans would require greater resources," Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav said at the Middle East Green Initiative Summit 2021 at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

Yadav's intervention at the summit -- with the theme 'Succeeding the Transition to Green Economies: The Role of Sustainable Finance' -- made late midnight India time was about how "India believes that all countries should work together towards making this COP, a COP for delivery of concrete actions on finance and technology transfer."

"In this direction, we expect COP26 to initiate the process of setting the long-term climate finance for post-2020. Global leadership is also required to ensure the new collective long-term finance goal," Yadav said.

The COP or the COP26 is the annual climate change conference of the United Nations to be held from October 31 at Glasgow in the UK, wherein, global leaders and delegates would deliberate in fine tuning actions to combat climate change and reduce carbon emissions so as to keep the global temperature rise up to or below 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era.

To augment the availability of assured targeted resources, India has initiated various steps at the national level for mobilising financing for mitigation and adaptation respectively. These include National Adaptation Fund, Carbon taxation, Tax Free Infrastructure Bonds For Renewable Energy Projects, Green Bonds, etc., the Minister said and recounted how India endeavours to address "all the three dimensions of sustainable development (social, economic and environmental) in a balanced manner."

"In addressing the contemporary challenges, it is important to focus on solutions that can help us reach our goals with justice. The need of the hour is a global public partnership to harness technology, innovation, and finance to help developing countries in scaling up their efforts to protect nature," the Minister said.

Earlier, Yadav congratulated Saudi Arabia for the ambitious launch of the 'Middle East Green Initiative' and 'Saudi Green Initiative' that will motivate international consensus to deliver on the shared environmental commitments and reminded the august gathering that the findings of the recent IPCC Report 2021 are a final wake-up call for humanity to save mankind from the Holocene extinction. "It is now or never for taking concrete global actions to address climate change," he said.