Assess India's readiness to meet climate risks in 2024 and beyond

The December message from CoP-28 was loud and clear. Nation states are on their own in the battle against climate change.

They are free to do whatever mitigation they can, while at the same time having to accept mitigation failure in the big emission centres. As for adaptation, it is expected they will be self-motivated to find their own resources, since improved resilience is in their best interests.

Failure to formalize the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) was the biggest disappointment. The LDF has some funding on hand, which may well amount to less than the total pledged. What are the principles on which it will be disbursed? First come first served? Failure to resolve these issues makes climate disaster funding no different postCoP-28 from what it has been hitherto. Multilateral organizations may provide loans for reconstruction on easy terms. For the rest, the affected nation is left to fend for itself.

Disaster funding is one of the heads under which statutory grants are given annually by the Central government to states, prescribed by Finance Commissions (FCs) along with statutory tax shares.

Currently, we are in the funding horizon of the Fifteenth FC, which made a total provision for the five years 2021-26 of 1.6 trillion for the state disaster fund which states can routinely access (roughly one-quarter contributed by them); and 0.68 trillion for the national fund set aside to supplement the state fund for exceptional disasters. The Sixteenth Finance Commission will cover the five fiscal years 2026-27 to 2030-31.