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Adaptation important issue for India at COP30: Bhupender Yadav
India aims to finalize adaptation indicators at COP30, focusing on rationalization and implementation of climate finance and technology support.
Finalising adaptation indicators will be an important issue for India at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) scheduled from November 10 to 21in Belem, union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said in a briefing on Monday.
“Adaptation is an important issue at COP30. The adaptation indicators need to be rationalised. It will be a big issue. Indicators must be rationalised, based on national circumstances, finance, technology, capacity etc,” Yadav said.
The minister added that a discussion on Article 7.1 of the Paris Agreement—which establishes the global goal on adaptation to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience, and reduce vulnerability to climate change—will be likely at the conference.
“But, implementation on adaptation support should be rapid. In that regard there should be progress on Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP), Mitigation Work Programme (MTWP) and matters related to climate finance,” Yadav added.
After the global stocktake at COP28 in Dubai to support technology priorities identified by countries, and the scaling up of technologies such as renewables and energy efficiency etc, another key issue will be technology implementation.
“COP30 is a very important meeting. India has said COP30 should strengthen multilateralism. We have already endorsed this important issue at the pre-cop meeting. It is also a very significant milestone because COP30 marks ten years of the Paris Agreement ,” Yadav said. He, however, did not say when India is expected to update its nationally determined contribution (NDC) for the 2035 period. “We will announce as soon as we conclude the required consultations.”
The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) was established and adopted under the Paris Agreement in 2015. There was limited progress until 2021, when the two-year-long Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh (GlaSS) work programme was established. This culminated in the adoption of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience (UAE FGCR) at COP28 in 2023. The framework outlines 11 targets for the GGA and has also launched the UAE-Belem Work Programme on GGA indicators to track and measure progress towards the eleven targets outlined, according to a note by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
The work programme has produced a final list of 100 potential indicators. “With the final list of potential 100 indicators expected to be negotiated further and adopted at COP30, it is important to recall that indicators are a means to drive ambition, not an end in themselves. As adaptation narratives gain momentum, it is imperative to ensure that they do not divert attention from implementing concrete adaptation actions. Reporting under the indicator framework should not become an additional administrative burden for developing countries, nor should it reduce adaptation into a reporting exercise. The central concern lies with the employability of these indicators by Parties to accelerate progress on adaptation,” CEEW said.
HT reported on October 29 that adaptation finance—money needed to help developing countries mitigate the impact of the climate crisis—in developing countries by 2035 is likely to be over $310 billion per year, 12 times as much as current international public adaptation finance flows, according to the Adaptation Gap Report 2025: ‘Running on Empty’.
International public adaptation finance flows to developing countries were $26 billion in 2023, down from $28 billion the previous year. This leaves an adaptation finance gap of $284-339 billion per year – 12 to 14 times as much as current flows, the report by the United Nations Environment Programme added.
And based on extrapolated needs expressed in Nationally Determined Contributions (emission reduction targets) and National Adaptation Plans, the adaptation finance needed rises to $365 billion a year.
On Delhi’s pollution crisis, Yadav said, the levels continue to be lower than last year.
“We had meetings with the agriculture ministry and with agriculture ministers. On the industries front, we identified 980 red category industries. CPCB has worked on those industries to ensure the pollution load reduces. The other issue is construction and demolition waste and we have continuously worked on it with Delhi government. We are focusing on high pollution areas. Around 60 to 70% of crop stubble has been exhausted or utilised for the year, 20 to 30% is left. We allowed green crackers this year. But AQI is still under 400. We are continuously monitoring the situation,” he said.
Further, Yadav said India is expected to get 8 more Cheetahs from Botswana by the year end. “Our team will be going soon to further the process,” he said.
