India pushes for dialogue on climate finance, adaptation at Bonn climate talks

India has called for the shrinking pool of climate finance and a widening adaptation finance gap to be tackled head-on at the United Nations climate negotiations-linked talks under way in Bonn, Germany. It has urged that a Paris Agreement provision, which obliges developed countries to provide funds to developing nations, be given dedicated agenda space to enable substantive progress.

The intervention came in India’s statement to the 64^th session of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies (SB64), delivered by Harkeerat Randhawa of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). India associated itself with the positions taken on behalf of the Group of 77 and China (G-77), the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) and the BASIC bloc (Brazil, South Africa, India, China).

The Bonn meeting runs from June 8 to 18 and is the mid-year session of the two subsidiary bodies — on implementation (SBI) and on scientific and technological advice (SBSTA) — that prepare draft decisions for the annual Conference of the Parties. It is the first multilateral climate conference since COP30, held in Belém, Brazil, last November, and is tasked with turning those outcomes into negotiable text ahead of CoP31. That summit will be hosted in Antalya, Turkey in November, which holds the formal presidency and Australia presiding over the negotiations.

Mitigation Work Programme

India pressed for the dialogue on unilateral trade measures — a reference to carbon border levies such as the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) — to address their adverse effects on developing countries’ climate action, anchored in Article 3.5 of the Convention. It cautioned that the Mitigation Work Programme’s facilitative, non-prescriptive character be preserved, that the adaptation goal remain balanced and Party-driven, and that no obligations beyond agreed mandates be introduced.

India said that equity and historical responsibility must guide this phase, arguing that developing countries need carbon space to eradicate poverty and expand energy access, while developed countries lead through accelerated emissions cuts, including negative emissions as necessary. It sought operationalisation of the Just Transition Mechanism on the basis of equity and Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR-RC).

This year’s agenda is dominated by a shift to an implementation phase. Key items include the Global Goal on Adaptation, the Just Transition Work Programme and the Global Stocktake, alongside climate finance and the contested future of the Sharm el-Sheikh Mitigation Work Programme (MWP), which is due to conclude in 2026 with a possible extension on the table.