On 1 February, India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the government’s budget for 2026, which included a new $2.2bn funding push for carbon capture technologies.
In the absence of its new international climate pledge under the Paris Agreement, the budget offers a glimpse into the key climate and energy security priorities of the world’s third-largest emitter, amid increasing geopolitical tensions and trade challenges.
While Sitharaman’s budget speech did not mention climate change directly, she said: “Today, we face an external environment in which trade and multilateralism are imperilled and access to resources and supply chains are disrupted.”
Sitharaman emphasised that “new technologies are transforming production systems while sharply increasing demands on water, energy and critical minerals”.
The budget sets out: support for the mining and processing of critical minerals and rare earths; import duty exemptions for nuclear power equipment; and support for renewables, particularly rooftop solar.
However, unlike in some previous years, the 2026 budget does not include specific climate adaptation measures.
Below, Carbon Brief runs through five key climate- and energy-focused announcements from the budget.
- Carbon capture, utilisation and storage
- Critical minerals and rare earth ‘corridors’
- Nuclear energy
- Renewables
- Adaptation
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage
The biggest climate-related budget announcement was $2.2bn to support carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies in India over the next 5 years.
These are technologies that capture carbon dioxide (CO2) as it is released, then use or store it underground or under the sea.
This funding is aimed at decarbonising five of India’s high-emitting industrial sectors – power, steel, cement, refineries and chemicals. These sectors are “staring at the risk” of coming under the EU’s carbon adjustment mechanism (CBAM), even after a recent EU-India trade deal, according to Sitharaman.
The funding is meant to align with a roadmap released last year that sees CCUS as a “core technological pillar” of India’s 2070 net-zero strategy, particularly for “decarbonising sectors where viable alternatives are limited”, notes the government’s roadmap.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sixth assessment report, however, the need for CCUS to mitigate industrial emissions “may be overestimated”, compared to measures such as energy and material efficiency and electrification.
Speaking to Carbon Brief, Dr Vikram Vishal, a professor of earth sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B),, describes the budget move as a “big welcome step for industrial decarbonisation and India’s net-zero ambitions as a whole”.
Vishal says that the funding could go towards getting “big demonstration plants to near-commercial plants” that could entail even bigger investments in the future.
He tells Carbon Brief:
“India is blessed with both onshore and offshore availability for carbon storage. But while utilisation exists, storage has not happened, per se, even at a decent scale. We [would] need to build transportation infrastructure from the point source of capture at scale, on land and offshore. While offshore storage is very low risk, onshore presents a closer proximity to emission sources.”
However, that could also mean closer proximity to densely populated or protected areas.
Vishal adds that India has a very large theoretical storage potential, even a quarter of which would allow for up to 150bn tonnes of CO2 to be stored. This could sustain CCUS for hundreds of years, Vishal says, adding: “And by that time, the energy transition would have happened, right?”
Critical minerals and rare-earth ‘corridors’
Mining, sourcing and processing “critical minerals” and rare earths is another key area of India’s 2026 budget.
It proposes establishing “dedicated rare-earth corridors” in the “mineral-rich” coastal states of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to “promote mining, processing, research and manufacturing”. These corridors are intended to complement a $815m rare-earth permanent-magnet scheme announced in November.
In addition, the budget supports “incentivising prospecting and exploration” for rare-earth minerals, such as monazite, as well as others that the government wants to include in its list of “critical minerals”.
Last week, for instance, India classified coking coal – which is predominantly used in making steel – as a “critical and strategic mineral”, removing regulatory measures such as the need to consult affected communities before developing new mines.
Sehr Raheja, programme officer at New Delhi thinktank Centre for Science Environment, tells Carbon Brief that “moving up the critical-minerals value chain” is “increasingly essential” for the energy transition in developing countries.
She adds that some of the measures announced in India’s budget “point in that direction”, explaining:
“Globally, developing countries often stay stuck in the extraction stages of value chains and capture the least value. While duty exemptions for critical mineral processing and battery manufacturing signal intent to build domestic manufacturing capacity, the extent to which these new efforts deliver sustained value will only become apparent over time.”
Rahul Basu, research director at the Goa Foundation, which advocates for “intergenerational equity” in mining, tells Carbon Brief:
“Rare earths are not particularly rare. What is difficult is separating and refining them. China imports ore from around the world, including [the] US. Their competitive advantage lies in processing, including the ability to tolerate high pollution levels.
“India should perfect the processing technology with imported ores first. It is the critical piece. Not mining. We seem to want to mine the same beaches that are already seeing sea-level rise.”
Nuclear energy
The Indian government has also lifted customs duties on imports of nuclear power equipment within the 2026 budget.
Under the changes, equipment for all nuclear power plants will not be subject to customs duties until 2035, irrespective of capacity.
The announcement follows India enacting a landmark new nuclear act, dubbed the “Shanti” act, in December 2025. This seeks to privatise and invite foreign participation in the country’s nuclear energy sector, which has been largely state-run for decades and has a long history of public protests over safety and land-acquisition concerns.
The Shanti act – which is an acronym for “sustainable harnessing and advancement of nuclear energy for transforming India” – aims to help India increase its nuclear capacity tenfold to 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2047.
This coincides with 100 years since India’s independence and is “the year India aims to attain developed-nation status”, according to prime minister Narendra Modi.
Renewables
Support for renewables in India’s budget this year is significant, but “uneven”, experts tell Carbon Brief.
Allocations to India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) grew by 24% to a “record high” in the 2026 budget, with the bulk going to the prime minister’s flagship rooftop solar scheme. The government also cut import duties on lithium-ion cells for battery storage systems, as well as on inputs for solar-panel glass manufacturing.
However, Vibhuti Garg, South Asia director for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, tells Carbon Brief that spending on wind energy and – “more critically” – on transmission and energy storage has either “stagnated or declined” this year.
Garg says grid infrastructure is “fundamental” to renewable expansion. She explains:
“Transmission infrastructure and storage are fundamental to integrating higher shares of renewable energy into the grid. As renewable penetration rises, these elements become not optional but indispensable, and the current level of support falls short of what is required.”
Adaptation
The budget does not announce any specific adaptation measures or schemes, although it does mention a plan to develop and rejuvenate reservoirs and water bodies and to “strengthen” fisheries value chains in coastal areas.
The budget does not mention or include measures related to heat stress or its impact on productivity and workers in sectors such as agriculture.
According to India’s national economic survey tabled ahead of the budget, adaptation and “resilience-related” domestic spending “surged” from 3.7% of the country’s GDP in 2016-17 to 5.6% in 2022-23.
Yet, unlike earlier budgets, allocations to and expenditure from India’s National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change are not separately visible in the 2026 document.
Harjeet Singh, climate adaptation expert and founding director at the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, tells Carbon Brief that this budget was a “missed opportunity” and a response “not commensurate to the needs [for adaptation] on [the] ground or investment at the scale of crisis that we are facing”.
Singh adds that it fails to recognise the “huge” economic impacts already being felt in India. He says:
“If a budget doesn’t recognise how climate change is already eroding India’s development – causing huge economic losses – and is going to affect our GDP growth, it means that you aren’t really acting, or nudging states to do more.
“It was a missed opportunity to tell the world that we do see adaptation as a problem and we are acting on it, but we also need international cooperation.”
The post Five key climate and energy announcements in India’s budget for 2026 appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Five key climate and energy announcements in India’s budget for 2026
ADELAIDE, Friday 24 JULY — Labor’s National Conference has today committed to support a global moratorium on deep sea mining just days before the International Seabed Authority (ISA) Assembly is due to meet in Kingston, Jamaica, on Monday.
The commitment, agreed under the platform’s third chapter which covers climate and environment, outlines that Labor will “ensure the Australian Government leads ambitious international efforts for global agreements on… a moratorium on deep sea mining in international waters.”
Dr. Susie Byers, Head of Advocacy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said from the Conference: “This commitment to support a moratorium on deep sea mining is the strongest from Labor yet and is very welcome. The eyes of the world are now on Australia ahead of the ISA’s Assembly meeting next week, where delegates will discuss the future of deep sea mining and protection of the sea floor.
“Deep sea mining is a destructive new industry that, if allowed to start, will risk irreversible damage to the ocean and communities worldwide who depend on it, with disproportionate impacts on Pacific nations, cultures and economies.
“Labor must not agree to strong action at the Conference today and then stay quiet in front of the world at the ISA come Monday. Australia must hold its nerve or risk letting down the many thousands of Australians who want to see this destructive industry stopped – not to mention our friends, including many of our Pacific family, who want to see the world’s precious deep seas protected from greed and destruction.
“This year, Labor moved to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty, the most significant ocean protection agreement in history. To be true leaders in ocean protection, Australia must now fortify their position with a moratorium on deep sea mining in international waters.”
More than 40 countries, including seven Pacific nations, have called for a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep sea mining.
The Government has not yet announced opposition to deep sea mining, despite it being revealed that former LNP prime minister Scott Morrison and the international weapons industry, with links to AUKUS, were behind a global push to start the practice.
— ENDS —
Labor must follow through on promise to stop deep sea mining
The UK’s new prime minister Andy Burnham remained tight-lipped on his views on climate change during his leadership campaign.
When asked his views on allowing new North Sea drilling in June – a move that the oil-and-gas industry and right-wing media have pushed for in recent months – he said he had “something of an open mind” on the issue.
But a trawl of Burnham’s past comments about climate change, net-zero and fossil fuels reveals a different picture.
Just a year ago in June 2025, Burnham, while mayor of Greater Manchester, gave his support to the fossil fuel treaty – a proposed international pact on phasing out coal, oil and gas – calling it a “lifeline” that “all governments” should join.
In a video message endorsing the treaty, he also said that “there should be no turning away from net-zero”.
During his last bid to be Labour leader in 2015, he used similar language, saying:
“Labour under my leadership will never turn our back on either our duty to tackle climate change or the prospects offered by the green economy.”
Burnham has spoken about the threat of climate change since at least 2008, noting in 2021 that accelerated action could “create thousands of good jobs”, but also warning that net-zero risked becoming the “next Brexit”.
Burnham is yet to appoint his cabinet, but there is much speculation that he will select current net-zero secretary Ed Miliband as his chancellor – with their ally Miatta Fahnbulleh having a “strong chance” of taking Miliband’s former position.
Below, Carbon Brief recounts 28 things that Burnham has said about climate change, net-zero, fossil fuels, energy and transport.
Climate change
“Tackling climate change isn’t just about protecting the planet – it’s a powerful opportunity to build a fairer, greener future for our communities and businesses.”
Calling for local councils to be given more power and money for climate action, 29 November 2025
“There is little doubt that Greater Manchester’s biodiversity has taken a hit over the years, with habitats being lost, destroyed and becoming less diverse due to the impact of development, climate change, pollution and invasive species…We are committed to delivering a city-region for all residents to enjoy – a fairer, greener and more prosperous place for everyone.”
Statement after Greater Manchester declared a “biodiversity emergency”, 25 March 2022
“Over the next decade, if we accelerate our response to the climate crisis, we can create thousands of good jobs, improve homes, overhaul our transport system and make [Manchester] an even better place to live.”
Greater Manchester Green Summit, 18 October 2021
“The environment has never been higher on the national and international agenda.”
Statement after visiting a peat bog restoration project in England, 9 January 2020
“I think climate change [action] will be driven more quickly from the bottom up, if I’m honest. It’s the will of evolution if you wait for the government to act…When governments aren’t listening you get out and get your voice heard…so I think [climate protesters] deserve our encouragement, not our criticism.”
Speaking to Manchester Evening News at a student climate protest in Manchester, 24 May 2019
“Labour under my leadership will never turn our back on either our duty to tackle climate change or the prospects offered by the green economy.”
Labour leadership candidate speech, 15 July 2015
“Climate change can seem a distant, impersonal threat – in fact the associated costs to health are a very real and present danger…We need well-designed climate change policies that drive health benefits.”
Speaking to the Guardian about a study on climate and health, 25 November 2009
“The Stern report on the economics of climate change has changed the debate, in this country and around the world. It made it clear that the people who could suffer most from a failure to tackle climate change, or from a lack of ambition in our approach to it, are those living in the developing countries. They are the most vulnerable…[and] Stern said that the cost of not acting would be large. That is why the government took various measures in the recent spending review to ensure that we are prepared to face the challenges posed by climate change.”
Speaking in the UK parliament on the economic impacts of climate change on his final day as chief secretary to the Treasury, 24 January 2008
Net-zero
“There should be no turning away from net-zero.”
Speaking after giving his support to the fossil fuel treaty – a proposed global pact to introduce laws to phase out coal, oil and gas – on behalf of Manchester, 6 June 2025
“An opportunity is opening up for Britain as other countries move away from net-zero. We should seize that…We can make Britain a green leader. This is not the time to tiptoe, it is the time to commit to this path.”
Speaking at Innovation Zero World Congress in London, 29 April 2025
“[We] need a government that fully buys into the 2038 vision because the UK will not get to 2050 unless places like Greater Manchester are freed up to go faster – and we’re ready to go faster.”
Speaking about Greater Manchester’s aim to reach net-zero by 2038, 19 October 2022
“In Greater Manchester we have plans to build 30,000 net-zero social rented homes because we recognise that a successful city region needs good quality, affordable accommodation for everyone.”
Speech on the future of cities, 24 June 2022
“By building a broad consensus behind the drive to net-zero, we can ensure that the transition is a fair one that delivers social justice as well as climate justice. This is an opportunity for all of us to show how cutting carbon emissions in our cities can make a real difference to our communities – away from the abstractions and rooted in the real world.”
Panel discussion in Glasgow during the COP26 climate summit, 12 November 2021
“To the extent that people have picked up anything from COP26, it’s a sense that the drive to net-zero will mean cost and inconvenience for ordinary people and offsetting for the wealthy and entitled. All of a sudden, you can feel how net-zero could become the new Brexit – a debate that gets very divided on class grounds…This has got to be a wake-up call. We cannot let this happen. We need to act now to build a broad social consensus behind the drive to net-zero. How to do that? It starts with taking control of the climate narrative from those steering it in the wrong direction and turning it around…We must show how, if done in the right way, the drive to net-zero is actually an opportunity to reduce the cost of living; to make people’s lives better and society fairer.”
Writing for the London Standard, 5 November 2021
“The drive to net-zero is a chance to re-industrialise the north of England, this time in a clean way. Create really good jobs, future-facing jobs for people, better public transport, improve people’s homes…If we go quickly towards net-zero, it’s the quickest way to level up the country.”
ITV interview at COP26, 1 November 2021
“If we really embrace the drive to net-zero, that is the route to level up the country…But it needs substantial investment, upfront, now, of the kind that Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor [and chancellor under Keir Starmer’s government], has been talking about. We need long-term predictable funding.”
Interview with GB News at COP26, 1 November 2021
“I would have preferred to hear slightly less about carbonated wine and much more about a decarbonised economy.”
Referencing a UK budget, which included tax cuts for sparkling wine and other drinks, 28 October 2021
“Decarbonising is not just about lowering costs on to people. It’s the route to get better, cheaper public transport. It’s the route to getting homes that are cheap to run. It’s actually the way we can create thousands of good jobs for the people who live in Greater Manchester. This is the route to levelling up the country by going further and faster on decarbonisation.”
Speaking to Manchester Confidential, 20 October 2021
“[I am] asking people to stop seeing the environmental agenda as a cost and a burden agenda. I think this is a barrier that we’ve got to get over. Already in the media interviews I’ve done today, people are saying ‘can you afford it?’, ‘can it be achievable when times are tough?’.
“My answer to that is, at some point in the 21st century, all homes will be zero-carbon. At some point in this century, all buildings of any kind will be zero-carbon…All cars will be zero-carbon, all public transport will be zero-carbon…The question is: when? And surely the places that embrace those things first are putting themselves in a position of economic strength when it comes to facing up to the future. Rather than seeing the whole agenda as a burden, we’ve got to see it for the benefits that it can bring.
“There may be a greater upfront cost in a zero-carbon home, but let’s stop thinking, as we tend to do in Britain, of the short-term, the short-termist approach to life. Surely let’s start talking to the public about the lifetime cost.”
Greater Manchester Green Summit, 21 March 2018
Fossil fuels
“I’ve got something of an open mind, you know. I don’t have a sort of fixed position.”
Speaking on the issue of new North Sea oil and gas in a New Statesman interview, 3 June 2026
“We would fight this in GM [Greater Manchester]…Communities across the north would face all the danger and disruption while big oil and gas walk away with all the profits.”
In response to Reform’s call for fracking, on X, 25 August 2025
“I am proud to endorse the fossil-fuel treaty proposal today on behalf of Greater Manchester. It’s not just a plan – it’s a lifeline. It’s a call to end coal, oil and gas, hold polluters accountable…I urge all governments, nationals and subnationals to join this fight.”
Statement upon endorsing the fossil-fuel treaty, 5 June 2025
“Fracking is the past, it is not the future.”
Speech at London climate protest, 20 September 2019
“I have called for a moratorium on fracking. Far too many potential risks and unanswered questions.”
On X, 22 June 2015
Energy and transport
“What I would do, if successful, is lay out a plan for more public control over water, energy, transport, so that over the period we can get those bills down, fares down, and give people and give businesses breathing space.”
LBC interview, 2 July 2026
“I am all in favour of tough decisions at a national level. I don’t believe there should be a third runway at Heathrow, for instance. But I think those are decisions for national government.”
Guardian interview, 13 June 2019
“There is a debate to be had about aviation, isn’t there? There are changing public attitudes about aviation. Rather than just saying no to people flying, don’t we need to accelerate research into low and zero-carbon forms of aviation?”
Guardian interview, 13 June 2019
“Today, I stand alongside the mayors of some of the greatest cities in the world. I’m committed to a cleaner, greener and healthier future for Greater Manchester. Around a third of greenhouse gas emissions in our city-region come from transport.”
When signing the C40 Fossil-Fuel-Free Streets Declaration, which includes support for zero-emissions vehicles and walking and cycling, on behalf of Manchester, 14 September 2018
This article was updated on 20 July to reflect Burnham replacing Keir Starmer as UK prime minister.
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The post 28 quotes from new UK leader Andy Burnham on climate, net-zero and fossil fuels appeared first on Carbon Brief.
28 quotes from new UK leader Andy Burnham on climate, net-zero and fossil fuels
Climate Change
Greenpeace welcomes dismissal of Woodside’s anti-democratic “SLAPP suit” against climate campaigners
SYDNEY, Thursday 23 July 2026 — Greenpeace Australia Pacific has welcomed news that a ‘fishing expedition’ brought by Woodside in connection with a 2023 climate protest has been dismissed in full, celebrating it as a win for the community in their ongoing fight to stop Woodside from drilling for oil and gas at Scott Reef.
The Supreme Court of Western Australia today threw out Woodside’s case, finding it had not succeeded in establishing it might have a cause of action against an unknown party involved in a three-year-old protest to bring attention to the harmful effects of Woodside’s gas expansion on climate and cultural heritage.
It comes as public opposition to Woodside’s plans to drill over 50 gas wells at Scott Reef continues to mount.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Greenpeace welcomes the news that this case has been dismissed. Woodside’s use of a SLAPP* suit of this kind is a grotesque attempt to use legal tactics to silence people. There should be no place for SLAPP suits in Australian democracy.
“Community opposition to Woodside’s dangerous plans to drill over 50 gas wells at Scott Reef is large and growing.
“Woodside’s plan to drill for gas at Scott Reef is breaking hearts in the Australian community. Their plan to drill for gas at the pristine, magnificent Scott Reef, risking precious marine wildlife like turtles and whales, oceans and the climate, is a disaster waiting to happen, and one that over half a million Australians are calling on the WA and Federal governments to stop.”
-ENDS-
Notes for editor
A petition calling on the federal and WA governments to save Scott Reef has more than 552,000 signatures.
*SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation”. It is a legal tactic used by powerful corporations, particularly within the fossil fuel industry, to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the high costs of a legal defense until they abandon their environmental advocacy or protests.
Media contact
Lucy Keller on +61 491 135 308 or lucy.keller@greenpeace.org
Kimberley Bernard on +61 407 581 404 or kbenard@greenpeace.org
Greenpeace welcomes dismissal of Woodside’s anti-democratic “SLAPP suit” against climate campaigners
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