India’s Environment Minister, Bhupender Yadav, has presented a multi-faceted climate strategy at the COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil, urging developed nations to significantly increase financial support and accelerate emissions reductions while showcasing India’s own progress and launching new initiatives for industrial and ecological sustainability. In a series of addresses on 17 November 2025, Yadav positioned India as a leader in balancing economic growth with environmental responsibility, according to press releases from the Press Information Bureau.
Delivering India’s national statement, Yadav called for COP30 to be remembered as a “COP of Implementation” and a “CoP of Delivery on Promises”. He issued a strong appeal to developed countries, stating they “must reach net zero far earlier than current target dates and deliver new, additional, and concessional climate finance at a scale of trillions, not billions”. He further emphasised that affordable climate technologies must be accessible and free from restrictive intellectual property barriers to enable global decarbonisation.
Concurrently, Yadav detailed India’s domestic achievements, announcing that the country would submit its revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) until 2035 and its first Biennial Transparency Report on schedule. He reported that India’s emission intensity has declined by over 36 per cent since 2005 and that non-fossil fuel sources now constitute more than half of its installed electric power capacity of around 256 gigawatts, achieving a key 2030 NDC target five years early.
Driving Industrial Decarbonisation
In his role as co-chair of the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), Yadav highlighted the forum's expansion to 18 member countries and 27 companies. He described LeadIT, launched jointly by India and Sweden in 2019, as a model for global collaboration that unites governments and industries to advance low-carbon value chains. “This roundtable is happening at a critical time, as the world marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement and we have to now move from goal setting to implementation,” he stated.
He announced concrete progress under the Industry Transition Platform (ITP), revealing that 18 industries and research institutions from India and Sweden will soon initiate collaborative projects. These will focus on creating value from industrial by-products, carbon capture and utilisation, and applying artificial intelligence for process optimisation. Yadav also highlighted a specific LeadIT-facilitated partnership between Tata Motors and Volvo Group to decarbonise heavy-duty transport and welcomed SKF as the newest member of the initiative.
Linking Big Cats To Climate Resilience
In a distinct intervention connecting biodiversity and climate, Yadav addressed a ministerial segment on the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA). He argued that conserving apex predators is a direct and powerful form of climate action. “What we often call ‘wildlife conservation’ is, in fact, climate action in its most natural form,” he stated, explaining that healthy big cat populations indicate thriving ecosystems that efficiently store carbon and enhance climate resilience.
To bolster this agenda, Yadav announced that India will host a Global Big Cats Summit in New Delhi in 2026. He reported that IBCA, an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, now has 17 countries formally associated, with over 30 more expressing interest in joining. He cited India’s conservation successes, including doubling its tiger population ahead of the target timeline, as evidence of the effectiveness of its community-involved approach to protecting natural carbon sinks.
The key takeaways from India’s participation are its firm demand for escalated climate finance and earlier net-zero deadlines from the developed world, its active facilitation of green industry partnerships through platforms like LeadIT, and its pioneering effort to position wildlife conservation as an integral, nature-based solution within the global climate framework. |
