Bhupender Yadav: The Global South is Leading the Climate Agenda

On Wednesday, Union Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, stated that the Global South is at the forefront of the climate agenda, with India emerging as a key leader in this movement.

He explained that in 2020, India slashed some 7.93% greenhouse gas emissions, reflecting the resolve of the country in commitment towards climate action. The World Sustainable Development Summit 2025, organized by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), was focused on the theme: "Partnerships for Accelerating Sustainable Development and Climate Solutions", wherein the minister was speaking at the forum.

The minister emphasized the importance of global south in climate change mitigation and called for more efforts and work at higher ambition for action at international level. He also reminded that India was leading the transformational global initiatives like International Solar Alliance (ISA), Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and Mission Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE).

He resorted to the aspect of combating climate change, stating that it required an integrated approach to tackle climate action along with overall implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and called for creating strong global partnership for addressing interlink challenges like poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation.

The minister demanded reforms in the governance of the globe, calling upon the international community to keep the equity and justice at the core of climate negotiations. He invited developed countries to meet their obligations in regard to financial and technological facilitation in meeting commitments within the framework of the Paris Agreement.

He emphasized the need for mutual effort on an international level in improving the NDCs in terms of addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by such action in terms of self-defining efforts. The minister also stressed the need for urgent action in increasing the financing level of climate adaptation. Quoting UNEP adaptation gap report, he mentioned that adaptations would have to be scaled up with the increasing climate impacts forecasted, and thus he called for enhanced funding of adaptation to ensure corresponding development in vulnerable areas so as to enhance the implementation of livelihood-protecting solutions by developing resilience.