Environment and Disaster Management › Climate negotiations and finance
हिन्दी — Read in HindiUNFCCC negotiations and the Paris framework
The annual conferences, national pledges, loss and damage, adaptation, and the blocs in which countries negotiate. Prelims has asked about the Paris Agreement of 2015 and about BRICS summits and membership.
Foundation note: The Paris Agreement: how it works
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2016: the Paris Agreement reached at the UNFCCC meeting of 2015
Loss and damage
Copy link to Loss and damagePrelims and Mains
Loss and damage is the third thing the climate regime has had to deal with, after mitigation and adaptation.
2013
COP19 in Warsaw sets up the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.
2015
Article 8 of the Paris Agreement recognises averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage.
2019
COP25 creates the Santiago Network to give technical help to vulnerable countries.
2022
COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh agrees to set up a fund for loss and damage.
2023
COP28 in Dubai operationalises the fund, hosted for now by the World Bank.
The regime
- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), agreed in 1992, is the treaty countries negotiate under, and its Conference of the Parties (COP) is the annual meeting that takes the decisions.
- Common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC), set in that 1992 convention, is the principle every developing country argument returns to.
- It is the case that developed countries lead on mitigation, finance and technology, because they emitted most and can do most.
- The Paris Agreement of 2015 replaced assigned targets with nationally determined contributions, which each country sets for itself and is expected to revise upwards over time.
The fund
- It took the annual climate meetings a decade to give loss and damage a fund.
- Contributions to the fund are voluntary, and the United States has pulled out.
- The decision adopting the Paris Agreement says Article 8 creates no basis for liability or compensation, which keeps the fund charity rather than damages.
What changed
5 Sep 2026
- Nepal asked major emitters to pay for the 26 August disaster, and in doing so aimed at India the argument India makes to the developed world.
- Nepal's Foreign Minister named China, the United States and India, and Nepal wrote to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage.
- India replied that climate change is a common challenge rather than one country's bill.
- The argument therefore runs in both directions, because a country can be a large emitter in total and a small one per head.
The Hindu, 5 Sep 2026
Background reading: The Indian Express, 9 Sep 2026: Expert Explains | How floods triggered Nepal's demand for compensation (opens in a new tab)
BRICS as a negotiating bloc
Copy link to BRICS as a negotiating blocPrelims and Mains
BRICS is an eleven country group in which a Global South position on climate and on trade is now written jointly.
- Its declarations therefore read as one document on both.
- South Africa joined the four founders in 2010, and expansions in 2024 and 2025 took the group to eleven members, Indonesia the latest.
What changed
12 Sep 2026
- India held the chairship in 2026 and hosted the leaders' summit in New Delhi.
- The New Delhi Declaration of 12 September lifted those positions into a heads of government text, calling carbon border measures unilateral, punitive and discriminatory.
- It accepts a continuing role for fossil fuels in developing economies, asking instead for just, orderly, equitable and inclusive transitions.
- It launches a BRICS Carbon Markets Partnership and backs Ethiopia's COP32 presidency.
PIB, 12 Sep 2026: BRICS New Delhi Declaration: Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 13 Sep 2026: Need 'orderly & inclusive' energy transition, fossil fuels will continue playing key role: BRICS declaration (opens in a new tab)
19 Aug 2026BriefBRICS environment ministers made opposition to carbon border measures a formal position of the bloc and urged developed countries to triple adaptation finance for developing countries by 2035. The Hindu, 19 Aug 2026: BRICS environment ministers oppose EU carbon border tax (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 17 Aug 2026: BRICS Environment Ministers adopt four outcome documents (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 19 Aug 2026: BRICS is working for a future that puts people and planet first (opens in a new tab)
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2025: BRICS summits and membership
- Prelims 2014: BRICS summits and membership
Bonn climate talks, SB64
Copy link to Bonn climate talks, SB64Prelims and Mains
LeadThe Bonn climate talks: what India asked forJune 2026
Why in news
The mid year climate talks at Bonn, held from 8 to 18 June 2026, ended in gridlock over finance and trade. India used the session to press three demands before COP31 at Antalya.
Background
- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of 1992 is the parent treaty; the Paris Agreement of 2015 sits under it.
- Its yearly Conference of the Parties (COP) takes the decisions. Two subsidiary bodies prepare them: one on implementation, one on scientific and technological advice.
- These bodies meet every June at Bonn, the seat of the UNFCCC secretariat. This was their 64th session, SB64.
- COP30 was at Belém in Brazil; COP31 is at Antalya in Turkey, with Australia presiding over the negotiations.
India's three demands
- Finance: dedicated agenda space for the obligation of developed countries, under the Paris Agreement, to provide finance to developing ones, on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
- Trade: a dialogue on unilateral trade measures such as the European Union's carbon border charge, which India anchors in Article 3.5 of the Convention.
- Just transition: putting the Just Transition Mechanism to work.
The groups India works through
- The G77 and China, the largest bloc of developing countries.
- The Like Minded Developing Countries.
- BASIC: Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
The electrification gap
- Turkey proposed that electricity meet at least a third of world energy needs by 2035.
- Electricity is about a fifth of the energy the world finally uses, and less than half of that comes from non fossil sources.
- So only about 8 per cent of the world's energy is clean. Renewables must first become electricity, which means electrifying transport, heating and industry.
Why the talks stalled
- The session ended in gridlock over finance and the European Union's carbon border charge, the recurring sticking points for developing countries.
- The same division has run through the talks since they began: who pays, and who cuts first.
The way forward
- Tie any new mitigation target to finance actually delivered.
- Settle trade measures inside the multilateral process, not by unilateral rules.
- Measure the transition by the share of energy that is electrified, not by renewable capacity alone.
Prelims facts
- The Bonn session is of the UNFCCC's subsidiary bodies; this was SB64.
- COP31 is at Antalya, Turkey, with Australia presiding over negotiations.
- BASIC is Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
- The UNFCCC secretariat is at Bonn.
The Bonn session is the mid year meeting of the UNFCCC's two subsidiary bodies, the Subsidiary Body for Implementation and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice, which draft the decisions the Conference of the Parties (COP) adopts. SB64, the first session after COP30 at Belém, prepares text for COP31 at Antalya, with Australia presiding over negotiations. Its agenda carries the Global Goal on Adaptation, the Just Transition Work Programme, the Global Stocktake and the Sharm el Sheikh Mitigation Work Programme, due to end in 2026.
Why only 8 per cent is clean
Electricity's share
21 per cent of the world's final energy in 2025
Clean share of electricity
About 42 per cent came from non fossil sources
Clean share of all energy
21 per cent × 42 per cent is just over 8 per cent
What changed
20 Jun 2026LeadThe Bonn climate talks: what India asked for
See also: The IPCC's seventh assessment and the Global Stocktake
The IPCC's seventh assessment and the Global Stocktake
Copy link to The IPCC's seventh assessment and the Global StocktakePrelims and Mains
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of 195 members that does no research of its own; scientists assess published studies. Working Group I covers physical science, II impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, III mitigation, and a Synthesis Report joins them. Drafts pass expert review and two government reviews of about eight weeks each, and the Summary for Policymakers is approved line by line. The Global Stocktake runs on a five year cycle while IPCC cycles take six to seven years, which is the source of the timing dispute.
The three Working Groups
| Report | What it assesses |
|---|---|
| Working Group I | Physical science |
| Working Group II | Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability |
| Working Group III | Mitigation |
| Synthesis Report | Joins the three |
See also: Bonn climate talks, SB64 · Emission scenarios: from RCP8.5 to CMIP7
COP31, Antalya
Copy link to COP31, AntalyaPrelims and Mains
COP31 is the 2026 conference of the parties to the United Nations climate convention, to be held at Antalya, Türkiye, in November.
- Its presidency is split in a way not used before: Türkiye presides, and Australia oversees the negotiations.
- Its flagship goal is electrification, raising electricity's share of final energy demand from just over 20 per cent to 35 per cent by 2035.
What changed
28 Sep 2026New
- The priority themes do not name the transition away from fossil fuels, loss and damage, or wider climate finance.
- At COP30 in Belém India did not oppose a fossil fuel roadmap, provided it reflected common but differentiated responsibilities and set no uniform pathway.
Mains: a conference whose hosts leave fossil fuels and loss and damage off the agenda will face pressure from countries hit by disasters such as Nepal's.
Also filed elsewhere
- Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism · on Climate finance, carbon markets and carbon pricing
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is the European Union's charge on certain imports, paid by buying certificates that track the Union's carbon price.