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NEW DELHI: Calling unilateral climate-related trade measures such as the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) an instrument of protectionism, India on Tuesday told the global climate conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil that such moves contradicted the spirit of the UN convention, and undermined multilateral cooperation.Delivering statements on behalf of the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) group and the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group at the opening plenary of COP30, India reiterated its long-standing opposition to the CBAM, which is to be implemented from next year. The mechanism will impose a border tax on carbon-intensive goods such as iron and steel, aluminium and cement entering the 27 European Union nations, placing a tariff burden on products from developing countries including India and China.Although India did not single out any specific unilateral trade measures in its remarks, its criticism clearly targeted the EU’s planned mitigation action. Developing countries have sought to place the issue on the formal COP30 agenda for multilateral discussion, but EU nations have opposed this effort.India has argued since the CBAM’s conception that it will place an additional burden on businesses in developing economies due to embedded emissions in their products. It warned that micro, small and medium sized enterprises in the steel and aluminium sectors would be particularly impacted.India’s statement at COP30 also reiterated the central importance of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC), and the full and effective implementation of the Convention, its Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.On behalf of the BASIC and LMDC countries, it expressed full and unwavering support for multilateralism and international cooperation on climate change, particularly in the current geopolitical context, and highlighted that climate finance continued to be the key barrier to raised ambition.India called for a clear and universally agreed definition of climate finance; strengthened and scaled-up public finance flows for adaptation; and implementation of Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, reaffirming the legal obligation of developed countries to provide finance to developing countries.It further noted that the adaptation financing needs to exceed nearly fifteen times the current flows and emphasised that adaptation was an urgent priority for billions of vulnerable people in developing countries who had contributed the least to global warming but stood to suffer the most from its impacts. Besides, India also called for a strong outcome on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA).
