India’s climate journey is at an inflection point. Since ratifying the Paris Agreement in 2016, the country has committed to ambitious nationally determined contributions and a 2070 net-zero target. But ambition without alignment will not suffice. The department of economic affairs estimates that achieving these goals will demand $2.5 trillion by 2030. Adaptation alone could cost `72 trillion ($864 billion) across agriculture, housing, health, education, and disaster management.

Globally, the financing gap is even starker. At COP29, developing nations projected a need for $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 for mitigation and adaptation. COP30 pledged to mobilise these finances, but the road map is incomplete and conspicuously excludes energy transition costs. For India, this uncertainty is critical. Ranked as the world’s seventh-most climate-vulnerable nation, India faces mounting risks—crop failures, livestock losses, infrastructure damage, and human casualties. With 60% of the rural workforce tied to agriculture and 90% of farmers operating on less than two hectares, climate change is not an abstract risk but a direct threat to food security and livelihoods.

Yet, India’s fiscal priories remains misaligned. An ICRIER study (Singh et al, 2025) estimated that the current budgetary support to the agrifood sector is about `7,076 billion ($90 billion) annually.........

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