Q1. Critically examine the strategic and moral dimensions of India’s bid to host COP 33 (2028) in the context of Global South leadership.
AFfA (Analytical Focus for Answer):
- Conceptual Understanding: Define what hosting a COP implies beyond symbolism—agenda-setting power, narrative shaping, and geopolitical positioning.
- Strategic Assessment: Examine how India’s COP 33 bid expresses diplomatic ambition—its link with G20 success, BRICS support, and capacity for coalition building.
- Moral Analysis: Discuss India’s climate justice narrative anchored in Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC), and its legitimacy as a low per-capita emitter facing high climate risk.
- Evidence and Data Use: Refer to India’s renewable capacity (~220 GW, 2025), vulnerability indicators, and leadership in ISA/CDRI.
- Critical Evaluation: Identify contradictions—continued coal expansion, resource costs, and whether hosting translates into systemic reform.
- Judgment Orientation: Conclude by weighing India’s moral strength against implementation capacity, assessing whether the bid can institutionalize a fairer, multipolar climate regime.
Model Answer
Introduction
India’s intent to host COP 33 in 2028 reflects a deeper assertion of global climate leadership. It symbolizes not just prestige but the effort to recast climate diplomacy through the lens of justice, equity, and inclusiveness. Strategically, it positions India as a bridge between developed and developing nations; morally, it reinforces its long-standing advocacy of fairness in responsibility and capacity.
Strategic Dimensions of India’s Bid
- Assertion of Agency: India seeks to move from participant to agenda-setter in global climate governance (WEF, 2024).
- Coalition Consensus: The 17th BRICS Summit endorsed India’s bid, marking the emergence of a South-aligned bloc in climate diplomacy (DD News, 2024).
- Track Record: India’s G20 Presidency achieved consensus on the Global Biofuel Alliance and inclusion of the African Union, reflecting inclusivity in global governance.
- Institutional Continuity: ISA and CDRI prove India’s ability to build lasting institutions beyond a summit cycle.
- Bridge-Building Role: India mediates between the industrialized North and resource-constrained South, easing trust deficits.
- Diplomatic Visibility: Hosting COP 33 would consolidate India’s identity as both developmental and decarbonization leader.
Moral and Ethical Dimensions
- Principle of CBDR-RC: India’s advocacy for differentiated responsibilities reflects fairness in burden-sharing (UNFCCC, Art. 3).
- Low Historical Burden: With 17% of world population and only ~4% of cumulative CO₂ emissions, India’s moral argument carries empirical weight (World Bank, 2024).
- Vulnerability Paradox: Facing heatwaves, floods, and declining farm productivity, India embodies the inequity it seeks to correct.
- Ethical Synergy: The upcoming “Global Ethical Stocktake” at COP 30 aligns with India’s justice-based framing of global climate action.
- Justice-in-Action: India argues that mitigation targets must coexist with adaptation finance and accessible technologies.
Challenges and Critical Appraisal
- Symbolic Limits: Hosting COP does not guarantee policy change unless backed by concrete negotiation reform.
- Energy Paradox: India’s plan to add 80 GW of coal by 2031 (Reuters, 2025) complicates its moral stance.
- Financial Cost: Hosting costs can exceed USD 100 million, necessitating tangible diplomatic returns.
- Balancing Diplomacy: Navigating divergent expectations of developed and developing states remains a delicate act.
Conclusion
India’s COP 33 bid merges strategic pragmatism with moral conviction. It embodies a Global South aspiration to lead on equity and ethics rather than compliance. Yet, the ultimate test lies not in hosting but in translating legitimacy into reform—where India’s climate diplomacy institutionalizes fairness, inclusivity, and collective responsibility.
Q2. “Balancing energy access with decarbonisation is the Global South’s central development puzzle.” Evaluate India’s model of scaled, equitable transitions and its replicability.
AFfA (Analytical Focus for Answer):
- Conceptual Clarity: Establish why energy access and decarbonization form a developmental paradox for the Global South.
- India’s Model: Discuss how India’s transition balances affordability, access, and clean growth—Saubhagya, PM Surya Ghar, renewable expansion.
- Evidence and Facts: Cite India’s ~220 GW renewable capacity (2025), 500 GW target (2030), solar tariffs, and energy access achievements.
- Equity Dimension: Explain people-centric, subsidy-based, and digital governance design ensuring social justice.
- Replicability Assessment: Analyse challenges like coal reliance, grid infrastructure, finance gap (~USD 10 trillion to 2070), and institutional asymmetry.
- Evaluation: Argue that India’s model is instructive but context-dependent—requiring financial and institutional scaffolding in other developing states.
Model Answer
Introduction
For the Global South, the development dilemma lies in ensuring universal energy access without deepening emissions. India’s approach—combining large-scale renewable expansion with inclusive energy delivery—demonstrates that development and decarbonisation can reinforce rather than contradict each other.
Achievements in Access and Capacity
- Universal Electrification: The Saubhagya Yojana (2017–19) electrified nearly all rural households, closing a decades-long access gap.
- Rooftop Expansion: The PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana targets 10 million homes by March 2027; 1 million installations were completed by March 2025 (PIB, 2025).
- Installed Renewable Base: India’s renewable capacity reached ~220 GW by March 2025 (105 GW solar, 50 GW wind), making it the 4th largest globally (IRENA, 2025).
- Ambitious Targets: The 500 GW non-fossil goal by 2030 underpins India’s 2070 net-zero roadmap.
- Affordability Benchmark: Solar tariffs average ₹2.4/kWh—the lowest globally—driving mass adoption (IEA, 2024).
- Energy Security: Biofuel expansion and hydrogen development reduce import dependency.
Equity and Institutional Design
- People-Centric Approach: Subsidised rooftop solar enables low-income participation in the clean transition.
- Digital Governance: Aadhaar-based targeting improves transparency and minimizes leakages.
- Public Finance Tools: Concessional loans and capital subsidies prevent regressivity in energy pricing.
- Global Partnerships: India’s ISA and Global Biofuel Alliance export scalable policy frameworks to other Southern economies.
- Inclusive Growth: Clean energy is linked with livelihood creation, rural income, and female participation in renewable enterprises.
Constraints and Replicability
- Coal Dependence: Coal still provides ~70% of power; new 80 GW planned capacity reflects security-driven choices (Reuters, 2025).
- Grid Limitations: Transmission and storage infrastructure lag renewable generation (Global Energy Monitor, 2025).
- Finance Deficit: Achieving net-zero requires ~USD 10 trillion till 2070 (MoEFCC, 2024).
- Institutional Capacity: India’s governance mechanisms and manufacturing depth may not exist in smaller economies.
- Policy Lesson: Adaptability—not duplication—must guide replication, combining domestic reform with international finance.
Conclusion
India’s model illustrates that clean growth and access equity can coexist when driven by affordability, technology, and social inclusion. Yet, replicability requires systemic capacity and concessional finance. India’s journey is not a template to copy but a framework to localize—one that redefines the energy-development equation for the Global South.
Q3. How can India catalyse procedural and institutional reforms to make the climate regime more fair, multipolar, and innovation-ready?
AFfA (Analytical Focus for Answer):
- Conceptual Insight: Define procedural vs. institutional fairness in climate governance—representation, transparency, and equity in outcomes.
- India’s Role: Examine India’s diplomatic credibility (G20 consensus, BRICS support, Global Biofuel Alliance) as a platform for reform.
- Reform Pathways: Detail procedural reforms (inclusive participation, ethical stocktake) and institutional reforms (MDB, finance architecture, technology access).
- Innovation Dimension: Explain how India’s digital public infrastructure, AI, and data capabilities can modernize MRV and climate finance transparency.
- Critical Appraisal: Assess constraints—resistance from developed nations, need for coalitions, and implementation realism.
- Evaluation: End with a judgment that procedural fairness and technological innovation together can redefine the climate regime’s multipolar future.
Model Answer
Introduction
While the global climate regime has expanded in scope, its processes remain asymmetrical—decisions are shaped by a few while impacts are borne by many. India’s emerging leadership, rooted in ethical diplomacy and digital innovation, offers pathways to institutionalize fairness, plurality, and technological inclusiveness.
Enhancing Procedural Fairness
- Voice-to-Agenda Shift: India promotes the idea that Global South nations must shape—not just implement—climate agendas (WEF, 2024).
- Coalition Leverage: BRICS’ endorsement of India’s COP 33 bid underlines its capacity to unify emerging economies.
- Ethical Stocktake: The proposed “Global Ethical Stocktake” aligns equity and responsibility with technical review cycles.
- Inclusive Mechanisms: Rotating chairs, funded participation for LDCs, and balanced negotiation themes ensure democratized processes.
- Transparency Tools: Simplified MRV and open data enhance trust and verification between blocs.
Reforming Finance and Technology Governance
- MDB Reform: India’s G20 leadership (2023) initiated MDB reform discussions to mobilize concessional finance for climate adaptation.
- Equity-Based Finance: Linking Loss and Damage funding with vulnerability indices would operationalize fairness.
- Technology Democratization: ISA and Global Biofuel Alliance models support shared IP frameworks and co-development.
- Digital Public Infrastructure: India’s DPI and AI systems can enhance traceability of finance and carbon data, reducing opacity.
- Outcome Focus: Embedding “equity-weighted” metrics ensures accountability beyond pledges.
Making the Regime Multipolar and Innovation-Ready
- Regional Empowerment: South–South climate networks can institutionalize multi-node governance.
- Innovation Networks: Collaboration on low-cost green technologies and AI-driven adaptation fosters inclusive innovation.
- Political Realism: Reforms face inertia; India must balance moral leadership with diplomatic pragmatism to secure consensus.
Conclusion
India’s reform vision combines ethics, equity, and innovation. By modernizing procedures, rebalancing finance, and digitalizing transparency, it can help reshape the climate regime into a truly multipolar, just, and future-ready system—where climate governance becomes as inclusive as the crisis it seeks to solve.