India leads Global South to reject 'unfair' finance deal

Rich Global North polluted the planet to turn wealthy in a short span of time, an Indian negotiator told this reporter in Baku last week. "And now they are trying to get even richer by asking us to fix the problem."

- S DINAKAR

This, in short, was the essence of the global finance-climate proposal, adopted on Sunday, with an 11-year lead time for fulfillment.

The final draft heavily slashed the demand for climate finance of $6 trillion a year from developing nations to $1.3 trillion, and brought down the level of grants from $1.3 trillion to $300 billion from public and private sources.

Thunderous applause echoed around the plenary hall of the Olympic stadium in Baku, the venue of the 29th UN global climate summit, as India vociferously led developing nations across continents in rejecting the new global climate finance proposal, presented by the UN Climate Change, terming the agreement "unfair", "abysmally poor", "paltry", and an "optical illusion".

Nigeria termed it "a joke"; Bolivia called it "let every man save himself"; and a group of least developed countries and the association of small island nations staged a walkout.

"Gavelling and trying to ignore parties from speaking does not behove the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) triple system, and we absolutely object to this unfair means followed for adoption," India said.