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Modi shows will, way to tackle climate change: Commonwealth Secretary General
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Vishal Gulati | 16 Nov, 2021
The whole Commonwealth will work together, harder and smarter to
achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on
the climate crisis aiming to radically reduce carbon emissions.
And
India is an intrinsic partner in this challenge. It is the largest
member of the Commonwealth and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown
that there is a will and there is a way.
"We will work together,"
Commonwealth Secretary General, Patricia Scotland, whose birthplace
Caribbean island suffered tremendously when it was struck by a hurricane
in 2017, told IANS in an exclusive interview.
She is in this
Scottish city to convince world leaders gather for COP26 -- the 2021
edition of the UN Annual Climate Change Conference -- to renew and
strengthen commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of keeping
warming to 1.5 degree Celsius within reach.
On mobilising finance
for Commonwealth nations to cope with the impacts of climate change by
building long-lasting resilience and livelihood adaptation, she told
IANS the climate finance is one of the most critical elements leaders
are discussing at this climate summit COP26 in Glasgow.
"Many
countries have enormous ambitions to tackle the climate crisis, through
plans to phase out fossil fuels and transition to clean energy, develop
climate-resilient infrastructure and transform key sectors such as
agriculture to be more sustainable.
"But financing is required to deliver any of these strategies successfully," the Secretary General was clear in saying.
"More
than 10 years ago at COP15, it was agreed that developed countries
should provide US$100 billion each year to help developing countries
adapt to climate change and cut their own emissions.
"However,
according to the latest figures from the OECD just under $80 billion of
this has been raised in 2019, so we are clearly off-target and it is
frankly not enough for the climate action needed to keep global
temperature rise to 1.5 degrees."
She candidly said the developed
nations must deliver on their promises, not only to achieve results on
the ground, but as a matter of trust.
The reality is the current
processes to access some of these international climate funds are quite
difficult and arduous for capacity-constrained small states.
This
is why the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub was created in 2015
-- it places highly skilled advisers in government departments to build
capacity and support them in developing robust, successful funding
proposals.
To date, the hub has helped countries secure about $44
million in climate finance for six countries, with projects worth
US$750 million in the pipeline, she said.
Do you think
vulnerability should be the core basis for allocation of climate
finance, the Secretary General replied: "Vulnerability should certainly
be taken into account when deploying finance to developing nations. Some
nations are more vulnerable than others to the impacts of climate
change, due to structural aspects beyond their control such as geography
or location. In fact, this is the lived reality of many small island
nations.
"My own birthplace, Dominica, suffered tremendously when
it was struck by Hurricane Maria in 2017, which destroyed the
equivalent of 226 per cent of its annual GDP overnight."
Recognising
the devastation, the Commonwealth Secretariat is developing a Universal
Vulnerability Index (UVI) that assesses how vulnerable or resilient
developing countries are to economic, socio-political and environmental
shocks, such as climate change, which could influence how much
international finance they can access.
According to the Secretary
General, the climate change is the defining global challenge of "our
times, now exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic".
It is both an
existential threat and a threat multiplier, amplifying existing social,
political and economic inequalities. No nation is left untouched by this
phenomenon and all levels and sectors of society are affected, though
some are more vulnerable.
The solution, she believes, is only by
working together across nations and sectors to align actions, join
forces, share ideas, pool resources and learn from each other, will be
able to stop the crisis.
"It is the smallest and most vulnerable
that will suffer the most from the consequences of inaction, even if
they contributed the least to the problem," she said.
An
optimistic Patricia Scotland believes key outcomes will emerge from the
Glasgow summit that is primarily focused on climate finance for action
by developing nations to build resilience to climate change and to
reduce emissions to keep 1.5 degrees Celsius future alive and abandoning
fossil fuels. She says the young people are the key to changing
mindsets and building the momentum for change.
"I certainly hope
so. I expect that the use of fossil fuels will eventually become
outdated, as human civilisation advances to more efficient, economically
viable, and less damaging ways of producing energy and power.
"As
the cost of renewable energy technologies continues to fall, renewables
are now the cheapest form of energy, rather than fossil fuels.
"The
Commonwealth is certainly making it a priority to support member states
through the Commonwealth Sustainable Energy Transition Agenda and the
partnership with the International Solar Alliance."
The
Commonwealth -- a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal
sovereign states -- at COP26 will be launching a new toolkit for small
island developing states, developed jointly with Sustainable Energy For
All.
This toolkit supports the development of country-specific
business cases with detailed cost-benefit analysis and investment
strategies for facilitating investment in clean energy.
Its
experts are also supporting emerging petroleum-producing countries to
explore how to diversify and achieve a sustainable economy that is not
dependent solely on petroleum.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
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Import |
Export |
US Dollar
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66.20
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64.50 |
UK Pound
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87.50
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84.65 |
Euro
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78.25
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75.65 |
Japanese
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58.85 |
56.85 |
As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
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