Rich nations must do more on green goals,Rome Declaration

Developed countries will have to do more to achieve net zero carbon emissions and to provide low cost finance and technologies to developing nations for climate transition, commerce minister Piyush Goyal said at the conclusion of the G20 Summit on Sunday. The Rome Declaration, adopted at the end of summit , acknowledges that the developed world has not done enough in terms of meeting its commitments and will have to be more forthcoming with finance and technology, Goyal told a media briefing in Rome.  They will have to be more forthcoming in providing finance, technologies and the enablers to make the transition to a clean energy world in the future,” he said.

Goyal said while responding to a question on India’s capital needs to transition to clean energy that this would be determined by factors such as switching from coal to nuclear power. India will need large amounts of capital to set up more nuclear plants to replace current demand and to meet future demands for development imperatives, and it will also have to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to get raw materials, he said.

The grouping of the world’s 20 largest economies further agreed that Covid-19 immunisation is a “global public good” and that Covid-19 vaccines deemed safe and efficacious by the World Health Organization (WHO) will be mutually accepted, said Goyal, who is India’s G20 sherpa or representative of the head of government for negotiations at the summit. The G20 pushed the developed world to deliver on its commitment to provide $100 billion a year from now till 2025 so that greater levels of capital are available for developing countries.