Segolene Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Ecology said it is important to get finances in place for a successful agreement at the United Nations Climate Conference Conference (UNCCC) later this year.
She said it was crucial to solve the issues of finances related to the Green Climate Fund, which is meant to be used to help developing and poor nations mitigate as well as adapt to climate change.
Royal said heads of states of different Governments will thrash out the financing issue before the 195 countries meet at Paris later this year for the next Conference of the Parties to the UNCCC. All signatories are expected to arrive at a binding agreement on climate change efforts at this meeting.
“Resolving the financial issue is indispensible because the industrialised countries that have depleted environmental resources have a moral obligation…That’s what is going to give credibility to the agreement (at the UNCCC) and make it possible,” she said, adding that if the developed countries fail to resolve this issue, developing countries are going to lose faith in them.
Under the Copenhagen agreement in 2009, the Green Climate Fund was established with the aim to provide $100 billion a year, starting 2020, to help developing countries implement climate policies. However, in five years the Fund has only just breached the $10 billion-mark in December.
India, too, has been demanding a transfer of green technology free-of-cost to developing nations to help them bolster their climate initiatives. Both finances and transfer of technology have been bones of contention ahead of a climate agreement.
Royal inaugurated the Punjab Solar Park which was developed by the Frech Solairedirect. The solar park, spread across 40 hectares, has a capacity of 21 MW and will generate 39 Gigawatt hour per annum, the company said. The company has also won a tender from Telangana for three projects with total installed capacity of 57.5 MW.