PM Modi addresses COP28 Presidency’s session on Transforming Climate Finance

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday addressed the COP28 Presidency’s session on Transforming Climate Finance. Prime Minister urged the developed countries to reduce their carbon footprint intensity by 2050. India expects multilateral development banks to make available affordable climate finance, Prime Minister told the gathering.

Prime Minister Modi, at the COP28 Presidency’s session iterated that during India’s G20 Presidency, an agreement was reached to allocate trillion dollars till 2030 for climate action. “Such climate finance which is available, accessible and affordable. I hope that with the climate finance framework initiative by the UAE, this will be stressed upon,” said PM Modi.

Speaking at the session on Transforming Climate Finance during @COP28_UAE Summit. https://t.co/Gx5Q1F7vVO

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi)

PM Modi welcomes decision to operationalise the 'Loss and Damage Fund’ (L&D) 

Prime Minister Modi welcomed the COP28 summit’s decision to operationalise the 'Loss and Damage Fund’ (L&D) which would compensate the countries to deal with the devastating impact of the climate change. At the summit, every country was invited to contribute towards the fund of $450 million and all the developing nations were eligible to apply for it. As many as 196 parties adopted the decision to operationalise the Loss and Damage fund, the draft text for which was adopted by the transitional committee in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.

"India welcomes the historic decision to operationalise the 'Loss and Damage Fund'. This has released a new energy into the COP28 Summit. We hope that concrete results will be yielded on other issues related to climate finance," Prime Minister said. 

The damage fund to help vulnerable countries cope with the impact of climate change, he iterated. The initial funding is estimated to be $475  million, while the host UAE pledged $100 million, the European Union promised $275 million, $17.5 million from the US, and $10 million from Japan. The funding would help the poor and developing nations to alleviate the hazardous impact of the climate change. 

The World Bank will be interim trustee of the L&D funds, and will be conferred with legal personality and capacity as necessary for discharging its roles and functions, the text reads. Parties will hold the legal capacity to negotiate, and conclude and enter into a hosting arrangement with the World Bank.