India

Last updated: September 2025

The country is one of the priority countries with which the International Climate Initiative (IKI) maintains a particularly close cooperation.

With a population of more than 1.4 billion, India has been a key partner country of the German International Climate Initiative (IKI) since its inception. With its growing population and innovative strength, India plays a central role in solving global challenges, for example in climate change mitigation and in achieving the development goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

It is also one of the so-called megadiverse countries and is known for its extremely high level of biodiversity, as well as being home to four of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots. These biodiversity hotspots are defined as places where the biodiversity is particularly rich but, at the same time, severely threatened.

India's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was last updated in 2022. India has already achieved a milestone in its energy transition by sourcing 50% of its installed power capacity from non-fossil fuels, five years ahead of its 2030 target. India's NDC 3.0 is expected to be submitted in the second half of 2025.

India also signed the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Biological Diversity Act to meet the objectives of the CBD was enacted in 2002 and amended in 2023. It aims to conserve biological diversity and ensure the sustainable use of biodiversity as well as a fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from it.

India has already updated its National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan (NBSAP) to implement the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was adopted at the CBD COP 15 at the end of 2022.
The focus of the cooperation with India is the IKI funding area mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Several IKI projects are working on the topics of renewable sources of energy, sustainable mobility and logistics, as well as climate policy. Another area of focus is preserving carbon sinks and biodiversity, especially wetlands.

For example, as part of the IKI country call 2019 with India, projects focusing on storage technologies for renewable sources of energy and on the restoration of forest landscapes were chosen.
Indo-German cooperation
There are well established dialogue formats that play an important role in the regular bilateral political talks between India and Germany. One of these is the Indo-German Environment Forum, which includes various topic-specific working groups (climate, water, waste, urban areas, biodiversity).

Interface project

All priority countries of the IKI also engage in so-called IKI interface projects, which have permanent project offices in the capital city of the respective country. Alongside their own, country-specific project commission, these interface projects are also tasked with maintaining close contact to environment and climate ministries as well as networking with other relevant ministries in the field of climate and biodiversity policy. Beyond this, the interface projects also work to network all of the IKI projects in the country and region together so as to promote synergies.

In India, the interface function is currently represented by the Indo-German Support project for Climate Action in India.

Project priorities

The development and use of methods to measure the additional climate benefits from development programmes by the Indian government that do not have a specific climate focus;
Promotion of cooperation between the public and private sectors to support the transition to a low-carbon economy;
Function as an IKI interface: Promotion of dialogue on climate and biodiversity between the IKI projects in the country as well as between other actors (networking opportunities and knowledge management).

Project contact

iki_india(at)giz.de

IKI India: website of all IKI projects in the country

Indo-German Support project for Climate Action in India

Insights into the project work

All projects in the country

In a nutshell

Region: South Asia

Population: 1.45 billion (World Bank, 2024)

CO₂eq emissions (incl. LUCF): 3.805 billion t (3rd rank of global top emitters) (ClimateWatch, 2022)

CO₂eq emissions per capita (incl. LUCF): 2.7 t (ClimateWatch, 2022)

Total energy supply (IEA, 2023):

46 % Coal
5 % Gas
1 % Hydro
1 % Nuclear
2 % Wind, Solar etc.
20 % Biofuels / Waste
25 % Oil
20 % RE in electricity mix (5 % Wind, 6 % PV)

IKI projects in the country (last updated in August 2025)

bilateral: 12 ongoing, 27 completed
regional: 4 ongoing, 5 completed
global: 12 ongoing, 44 completed

IKI partner ministries:

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)
Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI)
Ministry of Power (MoP)
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)

The IKI Strategy

The IKI wants to maximise its impact on climate action and biodiversity conservation. To this end, it concentrates its funding activities on prioritised fields of action within the four funding areas. Another key element is the close cooperation with selected partner countries, especially with the IKI’s priority countries.

Click here for the IKI Strategy