India, China No Longer Developing, Must Support Poorer Countries: COP29 Delegates

India and China should not be considered developing countries like some of the poorer African nations, growing number of delegates are saying at COP29. While China should make additional contribution to financially help the most vulnerable nations, India should not be eligible for receiving financial aid, delegates told the Guardian. 

“China and India cannot be classified in the same category as Nigeria and other African countries. I think they are developing but they are in a faster phase than states like Nigeria,” Balarabe Abbas Lawal, Nigeria’s environment minister, said, as cited in the report. He said African countries, poor Asian countries and small island states, who are facing devastating impact of climate change, deserve the support.

India and China were classified as developing countries in 1992 when the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) was signed, and since then have been the leaders of the developing world in COP summits. Therefore, they are not formally required to cut their greenhouse gas emissions or to contribute to climate finance provided to poorer countries and are instead eligible to receive climate aid. However, China has voluntary opted for not receiving funds.

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Lawal was not the only one making the demand. An African negotiator said, “China, India, South Africa, Egypt: those countries should not be on the list of developing countries. In the framework, they have conditions to access funds, much more than us. They should be contributing.” 

The environment minister of Columbia, Susana Muhamad is also of the similar opinion, who said, “The developed and developing country categories are obsolete. These categories should be changed. The problem is that the Paris agreement and the UNFCCC are negotiated on these categories.” 

An Endless Debate

“Our per-capita income is $2,800 a year; in the US, it’s $35,000. No one should be saying India should be paying climate finance – we should be receiving,” Vaibhav Chaturvedi, a senior fellow at India’s Council on Energy Environment and Water, told the Guardian. 

If India did not receive such assistance, he said, speeding up the transition to a green economy would be impossible. “India will also defend the principle of responsibility for cutting emissions and providing climate finance based on historic emissions,” he added. 

India’s stand at the summit clearly showed that it is not going to contribute. Speaking at the high-level segment, Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh said that raising climate ambitions has to be preceded by the free availability of finance for the deployment of green technologies, particularly in Global South.

Trying to push China to contribute to climate finance on an equal measure to that of developed countries will be counterproductive, said Li Shuo, the director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, as cited in the report. “That would risk harming trust, and reinforcing divisions,” he said.

About 200 countries have gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan in the second week of talks to discuss the ways to provide $1tn a year to poor countries for coping up with the impacts of rising temperatures. The talks have made little progress as developed nations have been reluctant to put forward the amount needed. 

A report published by COP’s Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance found that developing countries except China will need approximately $2.4trn every year for climate action by 2030 of which $1trn will have to come from external funds. By 2035, this number will increase to $3.1-3.5trn, and external funding to $1.3trn, the report said.