Shri Piyush Goyal, CIM & G20 Sherpa: Thank you very much friends and a very good evening to all of you. I'm really delighted to share with you the outcomes of this very significant engagement of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and his participation at the recently concluded G20 Summit in Rome. This is his Eighth Summit and the first in-person summit after Osaka in 2019. The theme was People Planet and Prosperity. And truly within this overarching theme, this G20 has delivered a strong message of recovery from the pandemic, recovery in terms of the economy and across different sectors like health, employment, education, tourism, and most significantly, climate action.
Leaders adopted the Rome declaration at the Summit and over five days of extensive negotiations extending late into the night so much so that last night, there was not a wink of sleep and it went on till 10:20 in the morning today, when the final declaration was agreed by all the stakeholders. This communique gives a very strong message under the health section where we have agreed that COVID-19 immunisation is a global public good and the recognition of COVID-19 vaccines, which are deemed to be safe and efficacious by the WHO will be mutually accepted subject of course to national law and privacy law that countries may have. But more importantly, it has been agreed that everybody will help to optimise the processes and procedures of the WTO for vaccine approval and emergency use authorization and will also be strengthened, the WHO will be strengthened so that they can do recognition of vaccines faster. We have also agreed to extend the Debts Suspension Service Initiative, so that vulnerable countries, low income countries are not burdened with debt repayment at this critical time. On agriculture we are very delighted to share with you that livelihoods for small and marginal farmers were at the focus of our discussions and everybody has agreed that improving their livelihood is an important global effort that we all have to put in.
Energy and climate was clearly the centre stage of our discussions. India and many other developing countries pushed for safeguarding the interests of the developing world. We were also joined by the developed countries to increase the ambition from the current levels of commitment and active interest that the developed world has shown in terms of providing technology and affordable finance at low interest or grant based finance, long tenure finance. So we've really got into the text, the language, which confirms that the developed world has acknowledged that they have not done enough in terms of meeting their commitments, and that they will have to be more forthcoming in providing finance ,in providing technologies and enable us to make the transition to a clean energy world in the future. We have also been able to encapsulate some of the actions that the developed countries need to take. And for the first time, the G20 has identified sustainable and responsible consumption and production, along with provision of finance and technology, as critical enablers for achieving the climate goals, first decided at Paris, and as we have all agreed we must aspire for even more ambition.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mantra of sustainable lifestyles finds resonance in the Rome declaration, and sustainable consumption and responsible production patterns, coming out of the Sustainable Development Goal number 12, which is aimed at encouraging the developed countries to reduce their luxurious and energy intensive lifestyle has been discussed and accepted. We are very happy to share with you that we have been able to include once again and reiterate the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. We have also been able to push the commitment of the developed world to provide a $100 billion every year from now until 2025, and the commitment of all the countries to mobilise greater levels of capital for the less developed countries and the emerging economies. I am delighted to share with you that for the first time, we have also been able to put through that technologies today do not exist to be able to transition in a big way to clean energy and innovation will play an important role in the years to come.
The importance of energy security and the stability of energy markets has also been recognised by G20 Leaders Summit. We are soon going to have another engagement on resilient supply chains, which will be attended by several countries. And for the first time, the mention of the CDRI in accelerating the agenda of sustainable urban planning has been brought into the declaration. We are delighted that what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed in Brisbane in 2014 has finally been accepted by all the countries. First the OECD discussed it, now the G20 framework on Base Erosion and Profit Sharing has been brought out in this statement. It's truly a historic achievement for a more stable and fair international tax system.
Travel needs to get reinvigorated, we need to get back people's movement, bring tourism back, bring economic activity back. And we have all agreed to work towards a common framework for accepting each other's vaccine certificates. We have also discussed gender based violence and increasing women's participation in the workforce. Also denounced the uneven distribution of unpaid care and domestic work. So in some sense, a lot of the agenda that India was pushing for, lot of the agenda of the developing countries in which India took a leadership role, have been representing them in the G20 for several years has been brought into the text along with data free flow for trust, Data for development has come into the Rome declaration, and all the leaders of the G20 are now looking forward to the G20 presidency in India in 2023.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will be embarking for Glasgow later in the evening today and attending the COP-26 summit in the United Kingdom. Again, representing the voice of the developing world, the voice of the more vulnerable sections of society and protecting the interests, both of humanity with very ambitious activity going on in India to contribute to climate change, to contribute in our own big way to support the effort to leave behind a better planet for the next generation. Thank you.
Speaker 1: The final communiqué is talking about reaching net zero emissions by or around mid century. Is it a compromise that was reached to not have a real base put in the communiqué?
Shri Piyush Goyal, CIM & G20 Sherpa: Madam, first of all, what we have discussed and decided is global net zero. So all the countries put together will be net zero, which means that developed countries, which have already enjoyed the fruits of low cost energy for several years will have to go in for net zero much faster, and possibly even going for net negative so that they can release policy space and some carbon space for the developing countries to pursue their development agenda. Second, in terms of the year, we still have to work on technological solutions as I said earlier, there are no available adequate technologies for baseload, there are no adequate technologies to be able to absorb large amounts of clean energy into the grids and maintain grid stability. And therefore, we will have to look at more technology and innovation playing an important role before we can identify a year.
Speaker 2: Sir the Question is, how much India need in terms of funds for the climate transition that you're seeking from developed nations?
Shri Piyush Goyal, CIM & G20 Sherpa: As I said, this is something that needs to be determined based on the type of technologies that would be available for that climate transition. For example, for our baseload to be replaced from coal to maybe nuclear, we will need large amounts of capital for setting up nuclear plants, both to replace our current demand and for the future demand that our development imperative requires. Secondly, we will need to be a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to ensure adequate availability of raw material for nuclear supply and several other associated concerns around cost of power. So it's going to be a holistic solution, which will emerge through more dialogue discussion and the collective effort of all the countries.
Speaker 3: Maybe there is a approximate estimate number?
Shri Piyush Goyal, CIM & G20 Sherpa: Not yet.
Speaker 4: Sir India had pushed for commitment from G20 on improving livelihoods of small and marginal farmers, has there been some commitment from the developed world especially G20?
Shri Piyush Goyal, CIM & G20 Sherpa: Well, a communique like this does not get into the details of each of the subjects in that much micro detail. But the commitment that they have recognised the importance of protecting livelihoods of small and marginal farmers is a very big achievement.
Thank you.