Climate Change & Indian agenda for CoP 30 amidst geopolitical fractures
VK Bahuguna
November 14, 2025
(The writer is former Director-General ICFRE in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change)
The 30th United Nation conference of Parties (CoP-30) for Climate Change is slated to begin in Belem Brazil from 10the November to 21st November. The conference like previous conferences is very critical for taking stock of achievements on Paris commitments and the entire world will be watching the proceedings and the end results. Special focus will be on the Biennial Transparency Report (BRT) released by the UNFCC secretariat which has flagged the tardy progress and need to step up to evolve a broader strategy by the collective endeavours by the member nations; specially when the global temperature has first time breached the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold this calendar year. However, the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) synthesis report released on 28th October 2025 list out positive achievements in reducing the emissions. India in June 2025 had already achieved 50% of its goal of achieving its power requirements from non-fossil fuels which is a big milestone for a developing country of more than 143 crore people. After United States' withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under President Trump's administration COP30 must bridge the big geopolitical differences between the developed and developing countries to forge a concrete implementable pathways within the fore corner of common but differentiated responsibilities. In an era of extreme weather observed during last ten years the climatic vagaries have ravaged economies and displaced millions, these elements underscore the conference's role not as an annual ritual, but as a linchpin for equitable survival. This writer as an Indian battling climatic extremes and observing the damages done to environment by the developed world during previous two centuries, would like to ask the developed world why they are dilly-dallying in not accepting their role in creating such disastrous climatic conditions for the present and future generations of the world and shying away from providing the technology and the needed finances 98rather than harping on India and China for being the major emitters. In fact if they agree on these two fundamentals then India should be prepared to start climate resilient administration from top to bottom to meet the emission reduction and upscale mitigation and adaptations across landscapes. This writer on moral ground does not believe in principle to buy carbon credit by developed worlds from poor countries to offset their emissions but practically it has become a norm now though not very successful. Having said this one of the urgent need for the Cop 30 negotiators is to take note of the Global Stock take (GST) of COP28 which interalia revealed that current national commitments would yield only a 10% emissions reduction by 2030—far short of the 45% needed to align with 1.5°C threshold.
The conference's Brazil setting underscores the nexus of biodiversity, emissions, and equity, demanding differentiated yet collaborative roles from key actors and therefore, Brazil as head of the Cop had described it as ‘implementation Cop’ by urging nations to deeply bring the GST as integral to national policy specially to end acrimony on the issue of climate finance. As far as Indian views are concerned diplomatically, India has laid bare its stance through high-level engagements at the UN General Assembly briefing, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj voiced "deep disappointment" over COP29's finance shortfall, vowing to champion scaled-up, grant-based flows under common but differentiated responsibilities. It would be appropriate to discuss the Cop 30 from the point of view of India’s national interests.
Indian delegation must assert is to seek ‘Climate Justice and Equity’ leading the voice of Global South, in tandem with like Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs) and G77+China and rightfully ejecting the 300 billion dollar finance as ‘eye wash and optical illusion’ as even the 100 billion dollar promise was never met except in the year 2022. Therefore, on this again Indian should push for more than 1 trillion dollar funds and also accountability, transparency, and no dilution of CBDR through uniform reporting on developing nations. As demanded in Cop29 about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), there should free access to green technologies without IPR barriers, enabling deployment in sectors like renewable energy, adaptation, and methane mitigation. Indian government while taking pro-active steps as this writer has been suggesting need to ask for grants for the climatically vulnerable areas like Sunderban, North0east and Western Ghats.
From the point of view of civil society, Cop 30 must recognize that mitigation and adaptation will have no credible progress without the active and purposeful involvement of civil society specially marginalized sections. The NGOs and other civil society groups especially those working at grass root levels quite often feel aggrieved for not being consulted on preparation before the Cops and NDC. Further, forest department plays a key role in climate change mitigation adaptation but they are never consulted specially on strategy on Agriculture, Forests and Other Land Use (AFOLU) though AFOLU supporst livelihoods of billions of people. There are many people and organizations in India rooting for including AFOUL under Para 6.2 and Para 6.4 of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The Para 6.2 provides guidance to countries to use internationally transferred mitigation outcome towards their climate commitments. Para 6.4 creates a United Nation supervised mechanism for issuing carbon credit with finances to emission reducing projects. AFOLU is however, is a double edged weapon as On one hand, it is a major source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing approximately 20–24% of total global emissions, on the other hand, AFOLU offers immense mitigation potential through carbon sequestration and emission reductions, making it essential for Paris Agreement goals of limiting warming to 1.5–2°C. The IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report stressed AFOLU's role in delivering co-benefits like biodiversity conservation, food security, and adaptation to climate impacts, but warns of trade-offs such as competition for land with bio-energy etc.
Indian government has excluded agriculture from its emission intensity reduction target of 45% by 2030 from the year 2005 and instead focusing on energy and industry sectors, though Forestry, however, is included as a sink, with commitments to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5–3 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2030. The government may have its own reasons and may be primarily due to socio-economics, equity and food security for livelihoods. As seen during previous CoPs discussions excluding agriculture from NDCs and carbon markets avoid "trade coercion" that might hinder developmental rights. However, this writer feels that government of India must allow agro-forestry as an internal mechanism to get carbon credit through Corporate Social Responsibility and government funded project so that farmer’s income can be bolstered along with meeting mitigation. The Prime Minister has unequivocally reiterated that farmer’s interests will never be compromised. Indian delegation must declare it in the CoP 30 along with other steps like climate resilient bottom up development approach.
(Tripurainfo)
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