(MENAFN- Live Mint)

The first week of the annual climate conference in Belem, Brazil, concluded with the launch of two funds – one to protect tropical forests, and one for climate adaptation and health. In the final few days, countries will discuss more contentious issues such as finance flows from rich to low-income countries to combat climate change.

Mint explains what's going on and where India stands.

What's on the agenda?

The United Nations' annual climate change forum, the Conference of Parties or COP30, is being held from 10-21 November this year in the heart of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

The agenda includes ensuring that countries commit to lower emissions to limit the rise in global temperatures. It also aims to get historic polluters – today's rich nations – to provide low-income countries with financial and technological support to reduce their emissions and counter the effects of climate change.“Climate finance is the lifeblood of climate action," UN climate change executive secretary Simon Stiell said in his opening remarks.

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What has been agreed upon so far?

Among the concrete outcomes at COP30 is the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, a Brazil-led proposal that seeks to compensate countries for preserving tropical forests, with a fifth of the funds reserved for indigenous people. The proposal has secured funding of $5.5 billion and the endorsement of 53 countries. The expectation is that investor nations will bring in $25 billion of funding, with more capital coming from the private sector.

Also at COP30 last week, more than 35 global philanthropies committed to investing $300 million to counter the growing public health crisis driven by climate change. The focus will be on developing policies to counter extreme heat, air pollution and climate-sensitive infectious diseases.

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What has India's stand been in the negotiations?

India has maintained that developed countries must fulfil their financial obligations before asking low-income countries to raise their emission-reduction targets. In a statement delivered on behalf of the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) group and the Like-Minded Developing Countries group, India said finance for climate adaptation needs to be more than 15 times the current flows.

India has also asked for affordable and equitable access to clean technologies and cautioned that climate-related trade measures risk becoming instruments of protectionism.

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Why is climate finance a hot topic?

Finance is at the core of the negotiations because it is essential for the transition to clean energy, adaptation, loss and damage arising out of climate impacts, and for conserving forests, oceans and biodiversity. At COP29 at Baku last year, a woefully low sum of $300 billion was agreed upon, against the target of at least $1.3 trillion a year by 2035.

Under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, 2015, developed countries were to provide financial resources to developing countries for both climate-change mitigation and adaptation. But this is yet to happen at the scale required. That's one reason why India said at COP30 that“climate finance is the key barrier to raised ambition".

Will COP30 also discuss fossil fuels?

Brazil's environment minister Marina Silva has urged countries to discuss a road map for phasing out fossil fuels. A group of countries led by Brazil, Columbia, Kenya, Germany and the UK, among others, are pushing for such a road map, following up on an agreement signed at COP28 in Dubai, in which countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas by 2050. However, this is not on the formal agenda this year.

Meanwhile, an analysis by the non-profit Kick Big Polluters Out showed that more than 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to COP30, outnumbering almost every country's delegation except that of the host, Brazil.

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