In news– During the plenary session of the UN-led COP26 summit on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland, BASIC countries have underlined climate finance goals for the developed countries.
Key updates-
- During the opening of the COP26, India’s Environment Minister, on behalf of Basic countries, highlighted a road map for the delivery of the promised $100 billion climate finance support for developing countries.
- The financial support is expected to be mobilised in between 2021 to 2025.
- The Basic grouping also said its views were aligned with the position taken by the western African country of Guinea on behalf of the G77 group of developing nations and China.
- The Basic bloc is expecting a market mechanism that facilitates private sector engagement in carbon markets in the larger fight against climate change.
- They are also expecting to initiate the process within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of setting a new collective quantified goal on finance.
Note- In 2009, at the COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, developed nations committed to a goal of mobilising $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries. A finance delivery plan jointly led by Canada and Germany said developed countries will likely be able to mobilise $100 billion funding only in 2023 – with a delay of three years.
About BASIC Countries-
- BASIC stands for Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
- The BASIC group was formed as the result of an agreement signed by the four countries in November 2009 just before UNFCCC’s Copenhagen summit.
- These nations have a broadly common position on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and raising the massive funds that are needed to fight climate change.
- This emerging geopolitical alliance, initiated and led by China, then brokered the final Copenhagen Accord with the United States.
- Subsequently, the grouping is working to define a common position on emission reductions and climate aid money, and to try to convince other countries to sign up to the Copenhagen Accord.
- However, in January 2010, the grouping described the Accord as merely a political agreement and not legally binding.
Other nations negotiating within UNFCCC-
- Other than BASIC, there are the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the group of countries of Central Asia, Caucasus, Albania and Moldova (CACAM), the Cartagena Dialogue, the Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC), and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (ALBA in Spanish), etc.
- There are also the Group of 77 developing countries, the African Group, the Arab States, the Environmental Integrity Group, the Least Developed Countries, the Small Island Developing States, etc.
Source: Hindustan Times
