India Takes Minerals Agenda To COP31

Hello readers, we are The Core Climate Report, co-published with iSignal. This week, we talk about minerals, COP31 and much more.

First up, the global climate conference COP31 began on Monday at Antalya, Turkey and the joint presidency between Turkey and Australia had the agenda adopted on day 1, no small feat. The Climate Finance Work Program has been included in the agenda which was a demand of developing countries including India but there is nothing official about tripling climate finance yet. India has called for a fair, equitable and ambitious outcome at COP31.

An important pillar of climate action is renewable energy. Lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel, rare earth elements are used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels, transmission lines and much more but we import most of these in raw or processed form. The Indian government this week approved a ‘Capex Support Scheme to Promote Critical Mineral Processing’ with a financial outlay of Rs 2,814 crore over a period of five years.

The scheme aims to develop domestic processing capabilities in India, reduce import dependence, and develop its value chain. The scheme targets processing of lithium and nickel ores into high purity compounds. Cobalt is also expected to be recovered as a by-product of nickel production.

Ganesh Sivamani, associate fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, called the scheme prudent and told me, “While developing mines from scratch takes well over a decade, setting up processing plants can be done much sooner. However, while the 30% capital subsidy is promising, the Rs 500 crore cap for lithium plants might inadvertently restrict economies of scale compared to funding a single large, globally competitive facility.”

Besides, Sivamani pointed out that since India does not currently mine lithium and nickel, the new plants will have to rely on imported ores, forcing them to find suppliers in a challenging market. “Processing these ores will also require specialised expertise that India does not have; companies will likely have to enter into technology-transfer partnerships to establish their mineral processing loops,” he said.

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The Highlight Reel

• India celebrated Diwali and it made headlines for Indian cities’ air quality index. The official AQI for Delhi as measured by the pollution control board was 370 on Diwali night but several private platforms marked the AQI in certain parts of Delhi-NCR to be as high as 2000. Not only is there a difference in the way India measures AQI as compared to other countries, but also our National Ambient Air Quality Standards are less stringent than WHO standards. Besides, official AQI readings stop at 500. Even if all air quality monitors are functioning, there are major gaps in how Delhi measures its air pollution. You can read about it here.

• 2026 is going to be one of the hottest years on record. The global average surface temperature for January–September 2026 was about 1.47°Celsius above the pre-industrial average. Sea level is the highest on record, and sea-surface temperatures hit monthly records during 2026. The long-term retreat of glaciers continues and the annual mass loss of ice in 2025 would have filled five Olympic pools every second of the year, a new report by the World Meteorological Organisation found. You can read it here.

• Climate change increased Cyclone Arnab’s damage by 33%. A rapid-attribution study led by researchers at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute reveals that climate change significantly intensified tropical cyclone Arnab, which struck India’s east coast on October 28. According to the analysis, climate change led to tens of millions of dollars in additional direct economic losses compared to a pre-industrial climate baseline. Early warning systems for cyclones are also critical, we had reported. You can read the study here.

The Bright Spot

Residents of a small fishing village in the Philippines are using bamboo poles, oyster shells and coconut husks to protect it from tidal waves and storm surges instead of concrete. Some beautiful pictures here.

That’s all from us this week. See you next week!

This was first published on iSignal’s weekly newsletter, The Warming Bell, on Wednesday, November 11, 2026.