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India is looking forward to substantial progress on discussions related to climate finance and clarity on its definition as Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav will be leading Indian delegation to attend the 27th Session of Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27) scheduled to be held at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt from November 6-18, 2022.

In the 56th Session of the Subsidiary Bodies held in June 2022 in Bonn (Germany), developing countries made it clear that UNFCCC is the centre of the collective and multilateral response to the issue of climate change.

"There must be a faithful, balanced and comprehensive implementation of the Convention and the Paris Agreement, in accordance with its goals and principles," said the Ministry in a statement on Friday.

The Ministry said that more clarity is needed on the definition of climate finance for the developing countries to be able to accurately assess the extent of finance flows for climate action.

"While the Standing Committee on finance will submit a report on the various definitions, we hope to have good deliberations on this to arrive at a common understanding. The interpretation of the term must be in line with the commitments made by the countries on climate finance in the Convention and its Paris Agreement," it said.

The Ministry said that the goal of USD100 billion per year of climate finance by 2020 and every year thereafter till 2025 is yet to be achieved. "While the promised amount must be reached as quickly as possible, there is a need now to substantially enhance the ambition to ensure adequate resource flow under the new quantified goal post-2024," it said.

The discussion on the new collective quantified goal in the ad-hoc working group must focus on the quantity of the resource flow and also on the quality and scope. Issues relating to access to and suggestions for improvement in the function of the financial mechanisms are also important. Besides this, improvement in transparency to ensure appropriate oversight of the quantum and direction of flows is imperative. The ad-hoc working group must provide advice/suggestions covering all the above aspects, said the Ministry.

India will support the Egyptian Presidency, for a plan of action that answers the needs of developing countries. Adaptation and loss and damage are two issues at the centre of attention, and a progress on these two issues will complement each other. Loss and damage must also be on the agenda of COP 27 and there must be specific progress on the issue of loss and damage finance, said the Ministry.