Developing countries need support to combat climate change: India
New Delhi, June 22: Reminding the developed world of their commitments to developing countries, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday said developing countries need support to combat climate change.
Speaking at a European Union (EU) High Level Event on Climate Change in Brussels, Sushma Swaraj said that the capacity of developing countries to translate their political commitments into tangible initiatives and projects gets constrained by lack of predictable, sustained and adequate finances and technologies.
"The scale of resources required for the ambitious and effective achievement of the Paris Agreement or the 2030 Agenda is enormous," she said.
"The need for global partnerships, in this regard, is recognised in these processes and is at the core of all solutions offered therein."
Under the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, from 2020 onward, a minimum flow of $100 billion annually must be ensured from developed world to support the developing countries to meet their climate commitments or as planned by their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
India would require at least $2.5 trillion to meet its 2030 climate goals. Recently, the government had informed two of its projects had received $134.4 million from the Global Climate Fund (GCF).
Sushma Swaraj said that if these major documents are not implemented to reflect equity and principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibility, or fall short of the targets because the developing countries did not receive the requisite support, it would be a setback to all the effort put in by countries in a spirit of togetherness.
Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) is a principle within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that acknowledges the different capabilities and differing responsibilities of individual countries in addressing climate change.
"I may add here that the schedule for phasing out of HFCs (hydroflurocarbons) under the Montreal Protocol could be achieved as it was accompanied with a robust financial package to help developing countries make the transition to cleaner
technologies," Sushma Swaraj said to make her point.
"The world needs a similar road map for finance and technology if we have to achieve the goals set out in the Convention and its Paris Agreement," she stated.
"In its absence, developing countries will face serious constraints in achieving their existing NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions). Any expectations of them to enhance their ambitions should be matched with enhanced support."
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
