Telling rich nations that they cannot be absolved of their past “sins,” India on Thursday said developed countries should compensate developing nations for the effects their greenhouse gas emissions have had on climate.
On the third day of the climate summit here in the Peruvian capital, India said it was “not equitable to talk about what a country is emitting now” because that country could be at present reducing their emissions.
“This fact does not absolve them [rich nations] of all [past] sins,” Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment Susheel Kumar, who is the interim head of the Indian delegation, said.
He said India believed that developed countries should be held responsible for their high levels of emissions, which have caused harm to developing countries. That responsibility should come in the form of compensation and a fair 2015 Paris agreement.
Mr. Kumar said India’s goal on adaptation during the 12-day U.N. climate change summit talks was for it “to be there in the entire text.”
“We would also like a long-term global goal for adaptation to be clearly articulated in qualitative and quantitative terms,” Mr. Kumar said. “For a developing country, adaptation becomes a more immediate need [than mitigation],” he added
The U.N.’s definition of ‘climate finance’, meanwhile, came under the scrutiny of developing countries and civil society here on Thursday after it emerged that about $1 billion in Japanese funding meant for combating global warming was used to build three coal-fired power plants in Indonesia.
