The Global South needs the support of the North. Without this, it will be impossible for the world to meet its 'net zero' goals and limit global temperature rise
In a scathing attack on climate finance-related outcomes at the recently concluded COP29 negotiations in Baku, Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa, said the annual climate summit had turned out to be a ‘miserable failure’. Division among members of the Global South and inadequate collaboration to build a common narrative to attract climate finance was one of the reasons behind the disappointing outcome, said Kant.
Addressing the GreenReturns Summit 2024 organised by the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association in New Delhi on December 2–3, Kant said the Global South must work together to attract larger allocations of the global climate finance pool. Currently, the Global North accounts for 82% of the carbon budget, he added.
Representatives from around 200 countries met at Baku for COP29 in November but the annual climate negotiations veered off track when it came to placing a number on climate finance for developing countries. Instead of the expected $1.3trn in annual financial support for developing countries by 2035, the conference committed only $300bn per year towards climate finance. The New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), as the targets are called, invited criticism from developing nations, with India calling it an ‘optical illusion’.
Kant emphasised that if the Global South is not supported by the North, it would be impossible for the world to meet its net zero goals and limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. “Because of climate action (or lack of it), 100mn people will go below the poverty line,” he said.
Large-scale deployment of data centres, use of energy-guzzling Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and the mass use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications are limiting the carbon space of developing countries. “As there will be no carbon space, the ravages of climate change will be faced by the Global South,” said Kant.
Emphasising the need for the Global South to work together, the G20 Sherpa pointed out the success of the G20 summit in India last year as an example. “The G20 in New Delhi was a success because we spoke the language of the Global South on climate and many other issues.”
The African Union (AU) was made a permanent member of the bloc at the 2023 G20 summit in New Delhi. The AU was earlier an 'invited international organisation'. Permanent membership has given the continent the same status as the European Union and 19 countries.
Highlighting other issues that developing countries face, Kant said the Global South is addressing climate challenges while trying to stay out of a debt trap. As many as 18 countries of the Global South have interest payments higher than what they spend on education, while 44 nations have debt interest payments greater than what they spend on health, he said. “With such high debt payments, these countries are getting into a vicious cycle of poverty,” added Kant.
Kant also spoke of the need to have a transparent debt system and exhorted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to come up with a strategy to clean up this debt by the end of 2025.
Earlier, addressing the gathering on the outcomes from COP29 deliberations, NK Singh, former chairperson of the 15th Finance Commission, said, "It was a step forward, though inadequate and disappointing.” Adding that he would not write off the outcomes from Baku, Singh said it would be interesting to observe how capital worth $300bn per year is attracted into the climate space. "The $100bn per year target is something we are still chasing," Singh said. He also advised policymakers to frame regulations to de-risk and harness private capital flow into the climate space.