BRICS urges developed nations to fulfill commitment

BRICS nations have urged developed states to materialize their commitment on climate financing to developing countries, as their environmental ministers met virtually on Friday.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

While jointly celebrating the anniversary, ministers reiterated the commitments to the goals, principles and institutional framework of the Convention and its 2015 Paris Agreement at the BRICS High-level Meeting on Climate Change.

"We reaffirm the role of the Convention and its Paris Agreement as the fundamental legal basis and main channel for international cooperation on addressing climate change, and are committed to promoting the full and effective implementation of the Convention and its Paris Agreement," they said in a joint statement issued at the online gathering.

One of the key points highlighted in the statement was to urge developed countries to fulfill their financial commitment to developing nations for their climate efforts.

Ministers underlined that developed countries should take the lead in scaling up mitigation actions and ambition and provision of climate financing, and respect the right to development and policy space of developing countries as well as countries in transition.

According to the Convention and the Paris treaty, it's the obligation of rich nations to support developing countries in their climate efforts under a principle acknowledging the differing capabilities and responsibilities of individual countries in addressing climate change.

Considering the differences, developed countries should have scale up their level of support with a concrete road map to achieve the goal of mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 for climate action in developing countries.

The commitment has yet been honored, despite that the negotiations over it have lasted for 13 years. This is "hardly justifiable", said Xie Zhenhua, China's special climate envoy, addressing the online gathering. 

"This has greatly damaged the confidence of parties on jointly tackling climate change and also hindered developing countries from taking more effective measures", he noted, adding they should fulfill the commitment before parties meet in Egypt for COP 27 UN climate change conference later this year.

Ministers underscored that the support provided by developed countries in Annex II to the Convention should commensurate with the climate actions taken by developing countries. "Ambition of action needs to be matched with ambition of support to developing countries," they stressed.

They also called on these developed countries to scale up the support for developing nations adapting to climate change and enhance their resilience to climate change.

The rich nations are also urged to come forward with a detailed and explicit roadmap on how the commitment made at COP26, which was held in the United Kingdom in late 2021, to at least double the climate finance for adaptation to developing countries from 2019 levels by 2025 will be realized, as soon as possible.