As the world prepares to mark a decade since the Paris Agreement, a series of new developments have exposed the widening gap between climate ambition and delivery — particularly for the world’s most vulnerable nations. A landmark report by the Deep Decarbonization Pathways (DDP) Initiative, the fallout from the 7th Board Meeting of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) in Manila, and India’s push for adaptation finance reform have together reignited the Global South’s call for climate justice ahead of COP30 in Brazil.
Released just weeks before the summit, the DDP report — A Decade of National Climate Action: Stocktake and the Road Ahead — finds that the Paris Agreement has successfully reshaped national climate governance. Across 21 countries, including India, Brazil, Nigeria, China, and France, governments have embedded long-term strategies into their policymaking, improved the scientific basis for decision-making, and established institutions for climate coordination. “The Paris Agreement was designed as a catalyst for national action, and ten years on we can see the results,” said Henri Waisman, director of the DDP Initiative. “Countries have begun to reshape climate governance, embed long-term perspectives into policymaking, and accelerate technological change. But if we are to achieve the goals of Paris, the next decade must be about scaling up efforts and turning ambition into real action.”
For India, the report highlights a significant shift toward “development-led decarbonisation,” integrating mitigation, adaptation, and equity into national policy. “India’s long-term strategy marks a move from sectoral interventions to systemic low-carbon transitions,” said Vidhee Avashia from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Yet, the report cautions that long-term strategies often remain disconnected from concrete decisions and that most policies still focus on immediate emission cuts rather than deeper structural transformation.
The issue of climate finance, meanwhile, has become central to this transformation. Earlier this week, New Delhi-based think tank Climate Trends organised a High-Level Roundtable on Adaptation Finance in New Delhi, where senior officials from the Environment and Finance ministries joined experts from development banks, UN agencies, and think tanks to discuss the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). The discussions revealed the growing frustration of developing countries over the yawning adaptation finance gap. While international adaptation finance rose from USD 22 billion to 28 billion in 2022, actual needs are estimated at over USD 350 billion annually — with more than 60 per cent of that finance currently being delivered as loans.
“Adaptation needs to be built into a profitable market system that attracts private investment,” said Abhishek Acharya, director, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. “We must create strong frameworks that empower even the last tier of governance — states, municipalities, panchayats — to access finance directly.”
Ashish Chaturvedi, head, Action for Climate and Environment at UNDP India, added, “We need to look at our domestic political economy and our own capacities to devise narratives on adaptation. Global negotiations matter, but resilience will depend on local capabilities and political will.”
Amrita Goldar, senior fellow at ICRIER, stressed that adaptation financing should start with a clear understanding of economic impacts. “Without assessing how climate stressors affect GDP across sectors, we can’t attract private capital. Public finance must lead — technologies are still niche, and risks remain high.”
Experts agreed that India’s forthcoming National Adaptation Plan (NAP), expected to be unveiled at COP30, could redefine how developing countries link adaptation and development. “The geopolitics of climate finance is at an inflection point,” said Aarti Khosla, director of Climate Trends. “Countries are wrestling with how to make the Global Goal on Adaptation practical and measurable. The quality of finance matters as much as the quantity.”
But optimism over national progress was overshadowed this week by global outrage following the 7th Board Meeting of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) in Manila. The meeting, intended to finalise operational policies, ended with civil society groups and Global South representatives condemning the outcome as a “profound failure” that betrays the fund’s mission to deliver rapid support to communities devastated by climate disasters. Established at COP27 in Egypt, the fund has yet to transfer a single dollar to affected nations.
“It took us 30 years of struggle to get the fund established in 2022, and now, nearly three years later, not a single penny has been transferred to the front lines,” said Harjeet Singh, founding director of Satat Sampada Climate Foundation and Global Convenor of the Fill The Fund campaign. “This is not just delay — it’s a profound injustice.”
Ambassador Elizabeth Thompson of Barbados, a board member, acknowledged the procedural progress but emphasised the fund’s financial paralysis. “I hope the Barbados Implementation Modalities spur access at scale. But that cannot happen unless the fund is filled. After the International Court of Justice decision, this is no longer charity — it’s a legal obligation of polluting nations,” she said.
Critics argue that the Manila decisions entrench a slow, bureaucratic system, approving a “multi-month project cycle” instead of a rapid disbursal mechanism. “The fund was meant to act within 24–48 hours after disasters, but we now have a system that will take months,” said Brandon Wu, policy director at ActionAid US. “Because developed countries haven’t provided the money, the board is designing policies for a fund worth a few hundred million when trillions are needed.”
“The fund was supposed to simplify access and cut out the middleman, but the board has approved a nine-page decision with annexes that ensure access will be complicated,” added Liane Schalatek, Associate Director at Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung US. Civil society leaders also warned that developed countries are trying to turn the fund into another loan-based mechanism. “Governments of the Global North are simply not serious,” said Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator of the Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development. “We need a rapid response fund that can act within hours, not another slow, project-based bureaucracy fixated on loans.”
The role of the World Bank as the fund’s interim host came under renewed criticism. “We fought against housing this fund at the World Bank because we knew it was not fit for purpose,” said Mwanahamisi Singan of the Women and Gender Constituency. “The Bank has killed innovation and forced a return to a failed model. The only efficiency it has shown is in charging its fees.”
The debate over responsibility has now taken a sharper legal turn following the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion, which affirmed that industrialised nations have a legal duty to compensate for climate-related harm. “The ICJ has made it clear — financing climate harm is not charity,” said Charles Zander Deluna of World’s Youth for Climate Justice. “Every emitting country carries responsibility and must make full reparation. Every delay compounds the injustice already recognised by the court.”
As the countdown to COP30 begins, civil society groups, developing nations, and legal experts agree on one thing: the credibility of the Paris Agreement will depend on what happens next. “This fund was set up to be a rapid response to desperate situations, not another bureaucratic machine,” said Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International. “We achieved this fund through relentless pressure, and we will ensure it delivers on its promise the same way.”
India’s climate report card: Ten years after Paris
On track for 2030 goals: India has met or is on course to meet all its Paris targets — emission intensity down 36% (from 2005) and 50% of power capacity now from non-fossil sources (achieved five years early).
Net Zero by 2070: India’s Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS), submitted in 2022, charts a pathway balancing growth and decarbonisation.
Policy surge: Over 650 climate-related policies enacted since 2015 across energy, industry, transport, buildings, and adaptation.
Renewable boom: Installed renewable capacity rose from 76 GW in 2014 to 227 GW in 2025, driven by solar parks, wind hybrids, and PLI schemes.
Coal phase-down, not phase-out: Coal still makes up 44% of installed power, but just transition plans, supercritical tech, and biomass co-firing are underway.
Green Hydrogen push: National Mission launched in 2023 targets 5 MMT annual production; ₹17,490 crore allocated to scale manufacturing and use.
Transport shift: Under FAME and PM E-DRIVE, EVs are set to make up 30% of private cars and 80% of two/three-wheelers by 2030.
Finance momentum: Green finance flows hit USD 57.3 billion in 2021–22, up fourfold since 2016; sovereign green bonds worth USD 2 billion issued in 2023.
Adaptation advances: National Adaptation Plan due at COP30; State and city-level Heat Action Plans now guide local resilience building.
Global leadership: India co-founded the International Solar Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, shaping South–South cooperation on climate
