As nearly 200 countries debate the planet's climate future at the 30th UN Climate Conference (COP30) in Brazil's Amazonian city of Belem, India finds itself in a unique position in balancing the weight of its need for economic growth with its increasingly prominent role as a voice representing the Global South.

This year's climate negotiations follow last year's disappointing COP29 held in Azerbaijan, where countries missed the climate finance mark and agreed to raise $300 billion (€259 billion) annually by 2035 instead of the appealed $1.3 trillion.

Developing nations criticized countries with industrialized economies for dodging their responsibility by not pledging adequate climate financing. India said the pledged sum was  "too little, too distant."

Standing on the shaky ground set by COP29, this year's summit aims to operationalize the climate finance targets and revise national climate plans called the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The host country, Brazil, has insisted this will be "the COP of implementation."

How is India balancing economic and climate needs?

For India, like other vulnerable countries in the Global South facing a disproportionate brunt of the climate crisis, the stakes and hopes are high. As one of the world's fastest growing economies, it walks a tightrope, balancing its economic ambitions with the collective responsibility of tackling the climate challenge.

In the past few years, India has made substantial progress in the field of renewable energy — particularly solar and wind. It has the fourth largest renewable energy generation capacity in the world, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

And a report published in October by the International Energy Agency (IEA) concluded that the country is set to become the second-largest renewables growth market globally, after China, by 2030.

Despite its achievements in harnessing renewable power, India still relies heavily on coal, which is estimated to generate around 75% of its electricity. The country is the world's second largest coal consumer, after China.

Amid strong economic growth and corresponding energy demand, India has seen a multifold jump in its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The country was responsible for the biggest rise in GHG emissions globally between 2023 and 2024, adding about 165 million tons of GHGs during this period, according to a recent UN report.

India's emissions have grown but "it has also become more proactive about committing to more ambitious mitigation action on its own through the NDCs," Aman Srivastava, a fellow studying climate policy at the Delhi-based think tank Sustainable Futures Collaborative, told DW.

This year, India has achieved 50% of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources — five years ahead of its 2030 target.

Where do wealthy countries stand?

This year, the US, which is historically the biggest emitter, pulled out of the 2015 Paris Agreement for the second time under President Donald Trump, who has dismissed climate change as a "hoax" and "a money-making industry."

On the other hand, the European Union remains divided and unable to set a clear direction to achieve its climate goals.

Just days before COP30 began, the EU agreed to cut emissions by 90% by 2040, from 1990 levels, but gave the target leeway by allowing member countries to buy foreign carbon credits to make up 5% of the emission reduction goal.

Speaking of the West's waning leadership in climate affairs, Avantika Goswami, a climate policy researcher at New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, told DW the West's leadership role on climate policy is waning. 

"It's the crisis of Western economies today, which is spread across military conflicts, trade wars, deindustrialization, and economic stagnation — to which they are responding anxiously," she said.

Dhanasree Jayaram, a co-coordinator at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education's Center for Climate Studies, shared a similar view.

"Many developing countries have taken the lead while countries in the West or Global North have been faltering in the past decade," she told DW. This is an opportunity, Jayaram added, because "these were the countries that were often blamed for not contributing enough to the global public good."

A leading player in climate diplomacy

For a long time, India has argued in favor of "common but differentiated responsibilities" to fight climate change — meaning that although all countries need to act to combat the problem, the biggest historical polluters such as the US and European nations need to do more than others.

New Delhi has played a key role in the COP meetings over the past few years, especially in setting up the Loss and Damage Fund, aimed at helping vulnerable countries suffering from the adverse effects of climate change.

Jayaram also pointed to the Indian government's initiatives like the International Solar Alliance to help countries worldwide to scale up renewable power generation capacity.

By doing so, India has positioned itself as a bridge between the Global North and Global South, she said, adding that these efforts have also elevated New Delhi's standing as a leading diplomatic actor in climate talks and multilateral forums.

But there remains a perception, particularly in the West, that the Global South is not doing its bit to fight climate change, said Arunabha Ghosh, a special envoy to COP30 representing South Asia, and CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).  

"We have to bridge the ambition and the implementation gaps by bridging the perception gap. The perception gap that countries in the Global South are not acting or don't want to act," he told DW. "In fact, there's a lot more that's happening in the Global South than is given credit for."

What does India want from COP30?

Like many other low- and middle-income countries, India continues to argue that the world's wealthiest countries bear greater responsibility for climate change and therefore should do more to help poorer countries and finance transitions worldwide.

And climate finance remains one of the biggest challenges for India in achieving its environmental goals.

Ghosh said that one of the priorities is to find a way to boost the climate funding in a way that it does not increase the burden on developing countries.

"I would argue that it should also be about converting climate finance into climate investment so that money comes into our economies and builds infrastructure that we desperately need."

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru