Jagpreet Kaur, First Secretary of the Embassy of India in Bangkok, on Thursday, 2 July presented India's country statement at the 9th session of the Committee on Environment and Development (CED9) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), laying out New Delhi's multi-level commitments to combatting climate change. The statement covered national, regional, and international initiatives and stressed the urgent need for climate finance for developing nations.

Key Initiatives India Highlighted

In her address, Kaur drew attention to four flagship platforms championed by India on the global stage: the International Solar Alliance (ISA), the Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) movement, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), and the Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA). Each of these represents a distinct strand of India's climate diplomacy — from clean energy coalitions to disaster-proofing critical infrastructure across the Global South.

Notably, the statement also underscored the need for adequate, timely, and predictable finance for developing countries to fund climate adaptation — a demand that has repeatedly surfaced in multilateral forums but remains inadequately addressed by developed economies.

What CED9 Is and Why It Matters

The Committee on Environment and Development is a subsidiary body of UNESCAP, convened every two years to review regional environmental and development trends across the Asia-Pacific. It facilitates dialogue among governments, civil society, the private sector, and the broader UN system, and provides formal recommendations to the Commission. Every four years, the Committee meets at ministerial level for high-level policy guidance.

According to UNESCAP, CED9 is specifically reviewing progress against the priority areas set out in the CED7 Ministerial Declaration, with a sharper focus on synergistic policymaking and the integrated implementation of efforts to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The session also addresses the so-called triple planetary crisis — climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution in its multiple dimensions.

India's Broader Climate Posture

India's participation in CED9 reflects a consistent diplomatic strategy: positioning itself as a bridge between the developed world's climate ambitions and the developing world's financing constraints. Through ISA — co-founded with France in 2015 — India has sought to build a coalition of solar-energy-rich nations. The CDRI, launched at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, focuses on making infrastructure in vulnerable nations more resilient to climate shocks.

This comes amid growing pressure on the Asia-Pacific region, which according to UNESCAP faces disproportionate exposure to climate-related disasters. The region accounts for a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions while also hosting the majority of the world's climate-vulnerable populations.

What Comes Next

The recommendations emerging from CED9 will feed into the broader UNESCAP Commission process, with potential implications for regional climate cooperation frameworks. For India, the session is also a platform to build consensus ahead of upcoming global climate negotiations, where the question of developed-country finance commitments to the Global South is expected to dominate the agenda.