India has delivered one of its strongest warnings yet at COP30 in Belem, accusing developed nations of dodging their climate finance obligations and pushing developing countries into an impossible corner.
Speaking for the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs), India made it clear that the climate transition in the Global South is being held back by broken promises.
“Without financial resources from developed countries, developing countries cannot achieve the level of mitigation and adaptation necessary to meet the NDCs,” negotiator Suman Chandra said.
NDCs are national climate plans under the Paris Agreement that set targets to cut emissions and adapt to climate change, guiding global efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
This intervention comes as countries prepare their “NDCs 3.0” for the 2031–2035 cycle. India has not yet submitted its updated version.
The country said the Paris Agreement created clear legal responsibilities for developed nations to provide climate finance to developing countries.
“The provisions of finance under Article 9.1 are a legal obligation of developed countries and not a voluntary act,” Chandra said. Article 9.3, she added, requires them to take the lead in mobilising finance.
Yet, she said, developed nations have neither honoured these obligations nor ensured transparency or predictability in the financial flows they report.
India again strongly criticised the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), or the new global finance goal adopted at COP29 in Baku last year.
It said the NCQG decision was a "suboptimal" outcome with no clear commitment from developed countries, making it impossible for developing nations to meet their NDCs.
India said the NCQG "specifically refers to Article 9.3, with the legal mandate under Article 9.1 going completely unaddressed". The outcome was "inadequate" and "incomplete" and "at best… a deflection of the responsibilities of the developed countries", it said.
At this year's climate conference, developing countries have demanded that Article 9.1 be included on the official agenda for formal negotiations.
Brazil, the host country, instead proposed holding informal consultations on this issue and three other politically sensitive topics, including unilateral trade measures such as the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), to narrow differences before a stocktake meeting on Saturday.
India also said many developed countries have supplied outdated information in their biennial reports. "In our understanding, or any rational understanding, [this] does not translate into predictability," it said.
India also highlighted that "certain developed countries reported a decrease in financial support compared to the previous years, with reductions ranging from 51 to 75 per cent and 76 to 100 per cent, respectively".
It said there continues to be a lack of consistency among developed countries in defining what constitutes new and additional climate finance, as well as a "failure to distinguish between development finance and climate finance".
India said grants and highly concessional finance are essential to cut capital costs and enable green investments. It called for stronger UNFCCC financial mechanisms, higher replenishments and the removal of conditions that restrict access to funds.
Innovative tools under Article 9.3 may help, India said, but they cannot replace legal responsibilities. Financial support must be “predictable, additional and devoid of concerns of greenwashing” if the Paris Agreement is to hold.
India also backed demands for multi-year, quantified projections supported by clear methodologies.