COP27: ‘World has waited far long…’, says India on compensation fund approval
1 min read . Updated: 20 Nov 2022, 01:45 PM IST
PremiumCountries on Sunday agreed at the COP27 climate summit to set up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters, but delayed approving a wider deal outlining global resolve to fight climate change.
"The world has waited far too long for this," said India after the countries at the UN climate summit in Egypt agreed to secure an agreement on establishing a fund to address loss and damage due to climate change-induced disasters.
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, who is representing the Indian delegation at the COP27 in Egypt, said that the world should not burden farmers with mitigation responsibilities, according to the news agency PTI.
He also welcomed the inclusion of "transition to sustainable lifestyles and sustainable patterns of consumption and production in our efforts to address climate change" in the cover decision of the deal struck in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Addressing the Egyptian presidency at the UN climate summit, Yadav said, "You are presiding over a historic COP where agreement has been secured for loss and damage funding arrangements including setting up a loss and damage fund. The world has waited far too long for this. We congratulate you on your untiring efforts to evolve a consensus."
"We note that we are establishing a four-year work program on climate action in agriculture and food security. Agriculture, the mainstay of livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers, will be hard hit by climate change. So, we should not burden them with mitigation responsibilities. Indeed, India has kept mitigation in agriculture out of its NDCs," he was quoted by PTI.
Earlier today, countries agreed at the COP27 climate summit to set up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters, but delayed approving a wider deal outlining global resolve to fight climate change.
After tense negotiations that ran through the night, the Egyptian COP27 presidency released a draft text for an overall agreement - and simultaneously called a plenary session to gavel it through as the final, overarching agreement for the U.N. summit.
The session approved the text's provision to set up a "loss and damage" fund to help developing countries bear the immediate costs of climate-fuelled events such as storms and floods.
(With PTI inputs)
