Climate reckoning: Here’s how India should reboot its quest for leadership at CoP-30

Yet, geopolitics, fiscal strains and energy insecurity continue to shadow climate talks. The US under President Donald Trump is retreating from multilateral commitments. China is expanding green technology and leading the world on solar panels, EVs and wind turbines. The EU is focusing on green regulation and carbon border adjustment measures, its trade mechanism that penalizes poorer countries in the guise of climate action.

Amid this maze, India must craft its own middle path to anchor its development priorities while also helping reduce harmful emissions. India has come a long way—from a cautious participant at CoP-15 to a pragmatic deal-maker at CoP-26.

Now, it could emerge as an assertive rule-maker at CoP-30, with climate-trade diplomacy in focus. India’s CoP-30 challenge is to redefine its leadership, not through rhetoric on equity and climate justice alone, but institutional innovation, just frameworks and credible action plans that balance our growth with sustainability.

India has already achieved 50% installed energy capacity from non-fossil sources. We have 215GW of clean energy with 85GW more coming up. The International Solar Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure are leadership moves. At CoP-30, India is expected to unveil its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

This will reaffirm our mitigation goals, but also shift the spotlight to adaptation and resilience in a pivot driven by our vulnerabilities and need to underline these as issues of global justice.

Rich countries have an obligation to help fund climate investments, but the pledges of CoP-29 fell woefully short of needs. We must now lead the demand for a new climate finance deal that is legally enforceable, grants sub-national administrations access to finance and is supported by green bonds, etc, to reduce the cost of capital.

Our experience shows that decentralized adaptation works well at sub-national levels, as with Odisha’s cyclone shelters or Kerala’s flood warning networks. Such initiatives can be funded through a global resilience fund that gives grants and not loans.

The Global South also needs our voice on the energy transition’s path and sequence. While we reiterate our 2070 net-zero target, we must recognize that emissions will rise for another decade due to industrialization. The rate of the rise can be reduced by the use of renewables, energy efficiency norms, accelerated electrification and a phase-out of coal without abrupt shutdowns. India’s clean-tech ambitions can serve both mitigation and economic growth.

The National Green Hydrogen Mission can form the nucleus of a Global South tech coalition, with standards and innovation costs shared among developing economies. India could propose a ‘Global Green Technology Commons’—a platform to open-source patents in critical technologies such as battery chemistry, carbon capture and low-cost hydrogen electrolysers.

Our domestic climate strategy must take a dual approach: a pragmatic balance of mitigation and adaptation. The former implies decarbonization, while the latter implies resilience building in agriculture, water, health and water systems.

For this strategy to be effective, we recommend the following:

First, establish a national climate budget that tracks spending on adaptation and mitigation for better allocation and accountability. By one estimate, adaptation spending rose from 3.7% to 5.6% of GDP between 2015-16 and 2021-22, but we have had inadequate transparency of this expenditure. Initiatives like Mission LIFE, Amrut and Jal Shakti should integrate both mitigation and adaptation, which this framework must track formally.

Second, the National Action Plan on Climate Change of 2008 needs a full review, updated targets and all its eight ‘missions’ put to rigorous evaluation. We need a new unified National Climate Action Plan and National Adaptation Plan.

Third, let’s review our energy transition in the light of problems in grid integration, battery storage inadequacy and land acquisition hurdles. Coal-based energy, which hasn’t yet peaked, would need a gradual phase-down.

Fourth, we need a comprehensive plan for the disposal of renewable waste and new technologies. This requires recycling systems for solar panels, batteries and e-waste.

Fifth, we need a coherent centrally coordinated climate mechanism that aligns fiscal incentives, carbon pricing and green taxonomy. Currently, our green agenda and policies are fragmented across too many ministries. For instance, contrary to Western perception, Indian industry already pays an implicit carbon tax via energy duties and renewable obligations. So coherent tools are needed to avoid double burdens.

Climate leadership will come not from grand pledges, but earning global credibility and trust through transparent, adaptive and inclusive climate governance. How effectively we manage the triad of energy security, environmental sustainability and economic growth will matter. If CoP-30 can refocus the global dialogue on adaptation, equity and finance, and if India offers moral clarity and policy realism, the summit could mark a new chapter in climate multilateralism.

The authors are, respectively, senior fellow, Pune International Centre, and a corporate economist based in Mumbai