France warned on Monday it could block the release of climate funding to India under a recent trade agreement with the European Union if New Delhi does not strengthen its efforts to tackle global warming.
France’s ecological transition minister, Monique Barbut, told AFP that the EU should adopt a firmer stance against climate inaction and pursue a “more transactional” approach in negotiations with emerging economies.
As an example, she cited India, which signed a major trade agreement with Brussels in January.
Under the deal, the EU is expected to provide €500 million (about $574 million) to support India’s green transition, she said.
“I am not in favour of such funding until India submits a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in accordance with its commitments and it adopts a slightly different approach towards the European Union in climate negotiations,” she said.
NDCs are national plans to reduce planet-warming emissions that signatories to the Paris Agreement are required to submit every five years.
More than 60 countries, including major recipients of climate finance such as Egypt and the Philippines, have yet to present their latest submissions after missing a United Nations deadline last year.
India is currently the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States.
Barbut added that Brussels should adopt a tougher approach in climate diplomacy, advocating a “more strategic and also more transactional approach”.
“This clearly means: ‘We only pay if you act’,” she said in an interview, noting that she had raised the issue in a message to the European Commission.
“Europe should only provide financial support to countries that themselves make credible commitments within the framework of the Paris Agreement.”
EU climate ministers are scheduled to discuss the 27-nation bloc’s climate diplomacy during a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.