India

Last updated: October 2026

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 NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) was updated in 2026 for the period 2031-2035 and submitted to the UNFCCC. In it, India commits to reducing the carbon intensity of its GDP by 47 per cent by 2035 compared with 2005 and to increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in installed electricity capacity to 60 per cent. In addition, carbon storage through forest and tree cover is to be expanded to between 3.5 and 4.0 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalents by 2035, compared with 2005 levels. India had already achieved its previous target of 50 per cent non-fossil electricity capacity by 2030 in June 2025, five years ahead of schedule.

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 updated NBSAP was presented at CBD COP16 in 2024 and contains new national biodiversity targets that are aligned with the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
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. In addition, Germany, together with India, selected a project from the IKI Large Grants Call 2025 in the field of adaptation.

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). It most recently took place in August and September 2026 and was attended, amongst others, by the German Federal Minister for the Environment, Carsten Schneider, alongside his Indian counterpart, Bhupender Yadav.

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 IKI-Interface Project: Industry Transition and Biodiversity Conservation.

Project priorities

Industrial transformation and measures to protect biodiversity in collaboration with organisations from the public and private sectors
Educating and engaging young people in climate and biodiversity conservation
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

IKI-Interface Project: Industry Transition and Biodiversity Conservation

Insights into the project work

All projects in the country

In a nutshell

Region: South Asia

Population: 1.46 billion (World Bank, 2025)

CO₂eq emissions (incl. LULUCF): 3.98 billion t (3rd rank of global top emitters) (ClimateWatch, 2023)

CO₂eq emissions per capita (incl. LULUCF): 2.9 t (ClimateWatch, 2023)

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 September 2026)

bilateral: 10 ongoing, 30 completed
regional: 4 ongoing, 6 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