WSDS 2026 Thematic Track: Brainstorming: Action Priorities for India’s Net Zero and Viksit Bharat (Development Transition) Goals

Recently, NITI Aayog released 11 reports outlining India’s pathways toward a Viksit Bharat 2047 and Net-Zero 2070. These reports provide a foundational template for the transformations required across sectors, institutions, and financing systems. The World Sustainable Development Summit 2026, themed ‘Transformations: Vision, Voices, and Values,’ offers a timely platform to reflect on these pathways. Anchored in this theme, the IKI India Interface Project proposes a thematic session to move from vision to implementation, by asking:

What can we, as the climate and development community do to achieve India’s goals of a Viksit Bharat while progressing toward net-zero GHG emissions by 2070?

With over 80 per cent of India’s 2047 building stock yet to be constructed, the sector offers a major opportunity to avoid long-term energy inefficiency. Moving toward enforceable, performance-based building codes integrated into municipal systems and supported by digital compliance, lifecycle standards, and market instruments will be essential to make Net Zero-ready buildings the norm.

Guiding question: How do we move from design-stage building codes to enforceable, performance-based outcomes at scale particularly through municipal integration, digitised approvals, and third-party compliance so that Net Zero-ready buildings become the default rather than the exception?

Industry Transition

India’s industrial growth must align with decarbonisation without compromising competitiveness. Immediate gains lie in efficiency, electrification, and circularity, especially among MSMEs, while frontier technologies such as green hydrogen and CCUS require targeted de-risking through blended finance, public procurement, and strong standards to prepare for carbon-constrained global markets.

Guiding question: India’s industrial expansion is essential for Viksit Bharat. How do we accelerate electrification, efficiency, and circularity particularly among MSMEs while preparing for emerging global carbon trade regimes and avoiding competitiveness risks?

Adaptation and Resilience

Net Zero pathways must be climate-resilient. Integrating vulnerability mapping, climate-proofing infrastructure, and strengthening water, health, and disaster-risk systems will be critical to safeguarding development gains and reducing long-term fiscal risks from climate impacts.

Guiding question: NITI’s framework underscores that development itself is a form of adaptation. How can vulnerability mapping, adaptation costing, and climate-proofing of infrastructure be systematically embedded into sectoral planning rather than treated as parallel or secondary processes?

Finance

India’s transition may require around USD 500 billion annually far above current flows. Strengthening financial intermediation, lowering the cost of capital, establishing a unified taxonomy, deepening bond markets, and deploying blended and transition finance instruments will be key to mobilising capital at scale.

Guiding question: India requires approximately USD 500 billion annually for its Net Zero transition far above current flows. Since the constraint is less about capital availability and more about intermediation and risk, what immediate institutional reforms (e.g., a National Green Finance Institution, unified taxonomy, transition-finance instruments) are most critical to unlock scale?

Role of International Cooperation

Sustained international cooperation will be essential to support this transformation. Predictable climate finance, concessional capital, and risk-sharing mechanisms can help reduce financing costs, while deeper technology collaboration and open, rules-based markets can accelerate the deployment of emerging solutions critical to India’s Net Zero and development goals.

Reflection: Open, rules-based markets and deep technology collaboration will determine whether frontier solutions such as green hydrogen, storage, and low-carbon industrial processes become affordable and scalable. International partnerships must therefore move from dialogue to co-development, joint innovation platforms, and harmonised standards. How can international cooperation catalyse such partnerships?