The $100-billion Green Climate Fund will soon become operational in India and the process of accrediting organisations which can access the funds is going on, Dipak Dasgupta, Alternate Director (India), Green Climate Fund Board and Chair, Investment Committee, says. Some international agencies has already accessed funds to work towards climate change mitigation and adaptation,
Mr. Dasgupta was speaking at a climate change dialogue, titled “How can long-term and sustained financing be structured for mitigation and adaptation”, hosted by the French Ambassador to India here on Monday.
He clarified that the fund would be made available to organisations such as NABARD that made development investment decisions and NGOs might not qualify. “This is not to be confused with development aid money,” he told The Hindu.
Mr. Dasgupta pointed to how the existing funding levels were inadequate to fight climate change. “Countries spend trillions of dollars on waging wars, but they are reluctant to commit more to mitigate climate change and this is an imminent disaster,” he said. While the world GDP is close to 88 trillion dollars as of 2013, the 100 billion dollars committed to fight climate change was only a speck as of now, he said.
Rajasree Ray, Additional Economic Adviser in the Union Finance Ministry, said that during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn in May, the government had sought clarity with regards to the guiding principles, resources and institutional arrangements in place to operationalise the fund. She said that while all sources, including private capital, needed to be mobilised, public finance needed to be on the table so far as climate change mitigation work was concerned.
