'INDIA MUST DECARBONISE AND ADAPT TO REACH NET ZERO'

WITHOUT THE USE OF APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES, THE COUNTRY CANNOT ACHIEVE CLIMATE SUSTAINABILITY, SAYS UNDP’S USHA RAO-MONARI

- NIDHI SINGAL

REDUCING CARBON EMISSIONS is a global priority. Finance, investment and new technologies are needed to reduce greenhouse gases and keep global warming in check. Usha Rao-Monari, Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in an interaction with Business Today, talks about climate change, the need for climate finance and what India should focus on. Edited excerpts:

At COP27, there was an emphatic warning that we are speeding towards catastrophic climate change. Even with so much happening, what are we lacking?

It’s a complicated question, and the answer will also be complicated, but allow me to simplify it. Somehow climate, climate concepts, and climate finance have all managed to stay at an obscure, convoluted level. The ‘how’ has prevented us from accomplishing some of the necessary goals. 

In terms of climate finance, decarbonisation [that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and carbon intensity] or mitigation has received 95 per cent of the attention, which is appropriate. Adaptation [that involves changing behaviour, systems, lifestyles, economies, and the environment with a view to mitigate climate change] is a topic to which people have not given as much thought. In the last two COPs, adaptability has finally gained greater attention. Currently, 5-7 per cent of climate finance funds go towards for adaptation. That’s nothing. The UN wants to increase it to at least 25 per cent of climate finance and eventually to 50 per cent. Adaptation over decarbonisation is a different kind of agenda. The two have to run parallel.

Do you think if action is taken now, and if funds are available, we can meet the 2030 and 2050 targets?