The Himalayas Are Heating Up. Can China and India Cool Their Climate Rivalry?
Attending the event in Belem, Jagannath Panda writes that the COP30 arrived at a moment when global climate diplomacy has become increasingly fractured. He writes that both China and India used the COP30 platform to call for equity, climate finance, and technological justice. Yet, their public convergence masked a deeper reality: the Himalayan ecosystem that both binds and divides them is now warming at nearly twice the global average. The “Third Pole”, the source of Asia’s major rivers and the environmental backbone of almost two billion people, is collapsing under the weight of glacier retreat, erratic monsoons, flash floods, droughts, and unprecedented temperature spikes. In this context, the question grew unavoidable: can China and India, despite their geopolitical unfriendliness, find common ground on this critical ecological frontier? And can the result of COP30 or the UNFCCC process push them toward climate peace, or will old suspicions continue to overshadow any possibility of real environmental cooperation? Read this piece by Jagannath Panda here.
