With its NDCs still pending, ambition for India can’t move while finance obligations remain unmet, a source privy to the negotiations told CarbonCopy
COP30 is almost at the halfway mark and country stances are getting clearer as negotiations progress. For India, the position is crystal clear: nothing moves unless finance does, according to a source familiar with the delegation’s strategy.
One of the most gridlocked issues at this year’s COP is Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, which is the obligation of developed countries to provide financial resources to their developing counterparts to combat climate change. The debates this year have revolved largely around new mechanisms and work programmes. But for India, the problem is much more basic. “The issue is with implementation,” the source told CarbonCopy. “There are linkages with other parts of the Paris Agreement. We need that implementation.”
India has been asking to not add to the architecture and instead fulfil existing commitments.
This has meant that any demand for higher ambition from India has hit the same roadblock, which is missing finance.
Countries, including India, have consistently argued that they face an expanding list of obligations without the means to deliver when finance doesn’t come through. That tension is shaping how the country seems to be reading the “Baku to Belém” roadmap, released at COP30. According to the roadmap, around $650 billion is expected to come from private finance, as CarbonCopy reported earlier.
This two-presidency effort aims to connect planning between COP29 and COP30. But India is wary. “It is the work of two presidencies,” the source said. “It doesn’t necessarily agree with India. Besides CBDR-RC [Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities], it also doesn’t align with India’s domestic framework. India doesn’t want to take on the commitment.” The concern seems to be that the roadmap will raise ambitions without addressing equity or capability.
Battlelines at COP30 have become deeper since the release of the Independent High-Level Expert Group’s (IHLEG) latest report, which also leans heavily on private finance. In fact, the report’s authors are of the view that the developing countries’ insistence on CBDR can hamper the progress of making smart domestic investments, as CarbonCopy had reported.
India doesn’t view that as a workable solution. “It doesn’t help that the focus is on private finance,” the source said. “It comes with a high cost of capital to do it at the scale at which you need such projects.”
That frustration over finance surfaces again in the debate on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). India has still not submitted its updated NDC, which has drawn attention around the venue.
Regarding India’s plans to submit its NDC as well as publish the National Adaptation Plan (NAP), the source said, “India is already committed and we are doing the best we can.” The problem, they said, is not unwillingness, it’s the absence of promised support. “Unfortunately it [climate finance] is not coming.”
India’s concerns echo those of many developing countries this year during negotiations over Article 9.1, the Global Goal on Adaptation and the Just Transition Work Programme. Ambition, according to them, cannot be viewed as separate from capability, which depends on promised finance that actually flows.
About The Author
