India seeks clarity on sources of USD 100 bln climate fund

India today sought clarity on ways to mobilise the targeted global climate fund of USD 100 billion per year by 2020, saying the developed countries are "nowhere" near the goal and this raises question on the credibility of the commitment.
India also said that all countries must know the quantum of international financial assistance as they are in the process of preparing Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up under the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010 and developed countries had committed to raise USD 100 billion each year by 2020 to help developing countries deal with climate change.

"On the sources of fund - of course, it can be from a variety of sources, but the goal agreed to was USD 100 billion per year by 2020. The fact of the matter is that we are nowhere near it," Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said while making an intervention at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue here.
"We are below fast start finance targets too. The reason why we want clarity on the flow of finance is because of these inaccuracies - there is no clarity as to how these goals will be reached. Moreover, it raises a question on the credibility of our commitments and the sincerity of the whole exercise," he said.

The Minister said that India is putting across the issue of climate fund in the interest of the developing world as a huge amount of public and private funds are involved.

"As there are no free lunches, there won't be free speeches either, if finance is not committed," he said, adding that every climate action has a cost and the world must think as to who would pay the cost.
The Minister also said that the countries should make the polluters pay rather than the poor.
"Instead of making the polluters to pay, we should not end up with a formula where we make the poor pay," he said.

On investment towards adaptation measures, the Minister said that public resources have to address the concerns of adaptions as private companies in developing countries are not coming forward to invest.
"The primacy of public resources is very important in this scheme of things. For instance, do we expect private investment for adaptation, which is a dire need of the developing countries? Where is the data?"
"It does not happen in my country and I have heard this from many colleagues of developing countries also that private sector does not come forward for investment in Adaptation. Therefore, public resources will have to address these concerns," the Minister added.