Climate change: Modi, Widodo among Asian leaders to commit to global goals at summit

Climate Adaptation Summit focuses on preserving natural resources and generating renewable energy in less-developed countries

India’s Modi pledges to reverse environmental degradation as US says it will ‘significantly increase the flow of finance’ to international adaptation initiatives

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From left, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Ban Ki-moon, former UN secretary-general and co-chair of the Global Commission on Adaptation, at the opening session of the Climate Adaptation Summit 2021 via video link. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:58pm, 26 Jan 2021Updated: 11:00pm, 26 Jan 2021

Asian leaders from India’s Narendra Modi to Indonesia’s Joko Widodo and China’s vice-premier, Han Zheng, have issued a unified pitch for governments to prioritise aid for vulnerable nations and communities to deal with the immediate effects of climate change alongside meeting long-term carbon neutrality goals.

The Asian leaders were among over 30 senior government figures who contributed by video link to an inaugural Climate Adaptation Summit convened virtually by the Netherlands.

While November’s highly anticipated United Nations summit in Edinburgh will focus on long-term mitigation efforts, such as ways to set up a global carbon-trading framework and consolidating pledges for carbon neutrality, the two-day event that ended on Tuesday was centred on building immediate resilience.

The theme of financing adaptation measures, such as the preservation and restoration of forests and water bodies, as well the generation of renewable energy in less-developed countries, was a common thread during the event. UN chief Antonio Guterres, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva and John Kerry – the newly appointed climate envoy for US President Joe Biden – were among the speakers who addressed the summit.

China’s Han told the summit that Beijing “takes both mitigation and adaptation seriously as a consistent principle”, and that it was currently drafting a new strategy to enhance adaptation and improve capabilities to deal with climate risk through 2035.

Modi, India’s prime minister, said India planned not just to meet its Paris Agreement obligations “but exceed them”.

“We will not just arrest environmental degradation but reverse it; and we will not just create new capacities but make them an agent for global good,” Modi said.

US climate envoy John Kerry delivers a speech at the Climate Adaptation Summit 2021, via video link. Photo: Xinhua

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