New Delhi, Oct 8 With less than a month to go for COP30 in Brazil, leading policymakers, financial institutions, and climate experts convened here on Wednesday for a high-level roundtable on adaptation finance.
The closed-door dialogue by Climate Trends brought together representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Ministry of Finance, along with experts from global development financial institutions, think-tanks, and academia.
The discussion focused on operationalising the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), assessing India’s adaptation finance gaps and needs, and exploring reforms in global climate finance systems to ensure fair, accessible and adequate funding for developing nations.
Participants highlighted that India, which faces growing climate impacts such as extreme heat, erratic monsoon, floods and agricultural losses, remains severely underfunded for adaptation.
While international adaptation finance increased from $22 billion to $28 billion in 2022, the actual requirement is estimated at over $350 billion annually, with more than 60 per cent currently flowing as loans -- a burden for economies already vulnerable to climate stress.
The event included two key sessions -- the first focused on policy perspectives, linking India’s upcoming National Adaptation Plan (NAP) to COP30 goals, and the second explored financing mechanisms, including multilateral development bank (MDB) reform, blended finance, resilience bonds, and private sector engagement.
“Adaptation needs to be built into a profitable market system which attracts private investment and creates entrepreneurial enterprise. We need to have a strong policy framework which can enable even the last tier of governance, such as state governments, municipalities, panchayats, etc., so that they can find funding,” said Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Director Abhishek Acharya.
Participants also underscored the need for subnational access to climate finance, enabling states and districts to plan and implement locally relevant adaptation measures.
Experts agreed that while global negotiations are vital, domestic and regional initiatives will play a decisive role in building resilience.
“We need to look at the domestic political economy and identify the key drivers. We need to look at our own capacities to devise narratives and meta-narratives on how we can prioritise adaptation,” Ashish Chaturvedi, Head, Action for Climate and Environment, United Nations Development Programme.
Amrita Goldar, Senior Fellow with the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, said, “Adaptation financing needs assessment of different stressors and how they impact the GDP across different sectors. We should be looking at adaptation-relevant expenditures. Looking through the budgets at the Centre and state levels is a big task by itself.
“For adaptation, we don't have a sense of how the technologies will be. How do you expect private finance to come in here when technologies are niche, hence, public finance should lead the way.”
The dialogue concluded with a consensus that India’s leadership on adaptation finance, through data-driven planning, inclusive policy frameworks, and regional cooperation, can help bridge north-south divides and influence the evolving global architecture on adaptation.
“The geopolitics of the world is at an inflexion point. COP30 is around the corner. Countries are wrestling with how to make the Global Goal on Adaptation practical and measurable. India is preparing to submit its first official National Adaptation Plan. Current estimates put adaptation needs at $359 billion per year,” said Aarti Khosla, Director, Climate Trends.
“The quality of the finance also matters, as more than 60 per cent of existing adaptation finance is delivered as loans. Lastly, the global political and economic context is volatile. Commitments made at multilateral fora are only as good as the systems that deliver them.”
The outcomes from the discussion will contribute to India’s position at COP30, as the country prepares to submit its first National Adaptation Plan to the UNFCCC.
The 30th UN climate conference, named COP30, will take place from November 10-21 in Belém in Brazil. It will bring together world leaders, scientists, non-governmental organisations, and civil society to discuss priority actions to tackle climate change.
COP30 will focus on the efforts needed to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the presentation of new national action plans (NDCs) and the progress on the finance pledges made at COP29.
--IANS
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