India provided $1.3 billion in climate finance to other developing countries: Report

India provided $1.29 billion in climate finance through multilateral channels in 2022, with its contribution exceeding that of some developed countries’.

UK-based think tank ODI collaborated with the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance to produce the annual report, a part of their ‘fair share’ series, amid talks about the developed nations advocating for an expanded donor base for climate finance, urging contributions from developing countries like China and Saudi Arabia.

Contrary to popular belief and according to the analysis, over half of developed countries failed to meet their fair share of international climate finance obligations in 2022, with the US contributing a mere 32% and leaving the climate fund short of $30 billion. 

Along with the US, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Spain also failed to hit the fair share mark with their contributions. 

The developed countries that did contribute their share to the climate fund included Norway, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Japan, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, and Finland.

India ranked second among developing countries, behind China, which contributed $2.5 billion to the climate fund in 2022. 

The 2022 data, drawn from various multilateral development banks such as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), placed India among the top 30 climate finance providers globally. 

This put the country in the same league as major economies like China and Brazil, and showcased the role emerging economies were playing in addressing climate concerns.

Unlike developed nations, which are bound by specific financial commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developing countries’ funding to multilateral climate initiatives is entirely voluntary. 

With China and Brazil also contributing sizable amounts, the landscape of global climate finance is shifting, according to the report. 

This proactive stance is crucial in light of the ongoing negotiations around the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on Climate Finance, as the new target is supposed to be addressed at COP29. 

The hope, according to the report, is that the NCQG will also address the shortcomings of the previous $100 billion climate finance goal set in 2009 where developed countries pledged to contribute $100 billion to the climate fund by 2020, a target they reached two years later in 2022.

As many aspects of the NCQG remain undecided, significant focus will now be placed on the ‘collective’ implementation approach, including discussions on a potential burden-sharing mechanism or expanding the contributor base, the report said.