Reclaiming Climate Narratives: Civil Society and the Bharatiya Lexicon for COP30
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-Neehar M. Barve
As the world looks toward Belém, Brazil, where the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the UNFCCC will convene in 2025, global climate action stands at a decisive juncture. The COP30 Presidency has placed human experience at the heart of its agenda—reminding nations that climate change is not only a scientific or economic challenge, but a human one that must be met with empathy, inclusion, and lived wisdom. This resonates deeply with Bharat’s civilizational ethos, where the interdependence of humanity and nature has long guided both thought and practice.
Against this backdrop, a two-day civil society dialogue titled “Priorities for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation for the Global South: A Civil Society Perspective and Narratives for COP30” will be held on 11–12 October 2025. Organized by YOJAK Centre for Research and Strategic Planning for Sustainable Development, Paryavaran Sanrakshan Gatividhi, the Indian Social Responsibility Network (ISRN), and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Policy Research and International Studies (AIPRIS), the event aims to help shape a collective Bharatiya narrative for COP30.
From Policy to People: A Call to Lived Knowledge
The COP30 Presidency’s framing underscores that solutions cannot emerge from policy alone—they must be rooted in the lived realities of people who experience climate change first-hand. Civil society has always been a frontline actor in this space, translating global commitments into community-driven action.
In Bharat, this approach is not new; it is intrinsic to the concept of Anubhūti—a holistic form of knowing derived from experience, observation, and reflection. From ancient water conservation systems and seed diversity practices to the reverence for forests and sacred groves, communities have long embodied climate responsibility as a way of life. These practices were not framed as “climate action” but as Dharma—a moral, social, and ecological order ensuring balance and continuity.
Such traditions, still vibrant across the country, offer the world an alternative lexicon—one rooted not in crisis or carbon, but in care and coexistence.
A Dialogue Rooted in Civilizational Wisdom
The upcoming dialogue seeks to build on this foundation. Its sessions will explore how principles of Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), biodiversity stewardship, and community-led adaptation can shape a new narrative for the Global South. The discussions will look at how regenerative livelihoods, traditional cultural practices, modern technologies, and cooperative networks can work together to foster resilience and self-reliance.
Importantly, the dialogue is not confined to expert deliberations—it is a space for co-creating a shared vocabulary and framework that reflects Bharat’s lived realities. Participants from across the country—community leaders, practitioners, scholars, and youth—will deliberate on how to express civil society’s voice on the global stage, ensuring that Bharat’s contributions are not peripheral but central to the evolving global dialogue on climate action.
Beyond the Settler–Indigenous Divide
Globally, indigenous peoples are now recognised as custodians of biodiversity, protecting nearly 40 percent of the world’s remaining intact forests. Yet, Bharat’s context is distinct. Here, the relationship between people and land has remained continuous—there is no settler–indigenous divide. All people of Bharat are indigenous to this land, connected through shared ecological, cultural, and spiritual lineages that have evolved in harmony with their surroundings.
Traditions such as Devrai (sacred groves) exemplify this continuity, placing forests at the heart of community, culture, and livelihood. These are not protected by law alone but by reverence, embodying a form of environmental stewardship that predates modern conservation frameworks. This worldview challenges artificial separations between people and nature and offers a lens of integration—where society itself is ecological, and ecology is social.
From Local Realities to Global Conversations
YOJAK and its partners have long worked to connect grassroots realities with global climate processes. During Bharat’s G20 Presidency, the Civil20 LiFE Working Group, coordinated by YOJAK, demonstrated how bottom-up engagement could inform international policy discussions. The forthcoming dialogue builds upon that experience, seeking to channel Bharat’s local wisdom and civilizational thought into the global climate discourse at COP30.
Rather than viewing the event as a single-point output, the dialogue is envisioned as a continuing process—an evolving exchange that strengthens collaboration across civil society and inspires self-defined frameworks for climate responsibility. It is a reaffirmation that communities themselves are the laboratories of sustainability, innovation, and hope.
Towards a Shared Future
At a time when global climate conversations often oscillate between ambition and anxiety, Bharat’s voice offers a note of balance. It reminds the world that sustainability is not a future to be engineered but a way of living already known and practiced by millions.
As civil society gathers this October, the dialogue represents more than a pre-COP meeting. It is an effort to reclaim the moral and cultural space of climate action—to speak from experience, act from responsibility, and imagine from harmony.
In doing so, it asserts a truth at the heart of Bharat’s worldview: that humanity and nature are not separate, that all people belong to the land they inhabit, and that the Earth—our Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam—remains a shared home for all.
Neehar M. Barve,
Fellow,
YOJAK Centre for Research and Strategic Planning for Sustainable Development.
As the world looks toward Belém, Brazil, where the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the UNFCCC will convene in 2025, global climate action stands at a decisive juncture. The COP30 Presidency has placed human experience at the heart of its agenda—reminding nations that climate change is not only a scientific or economic challenge, but a human one that must be met with empathy, inclusion, and lived wisdom. This resonates deeply with Bharat’s civilizational ethos, where the interdependence of humanity and nature has long guided both thought and practice.
Against this backdrop, a two-day civil society dialogue titled “Priorities for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation for the Global South: A Civil Society Perspective and Narratives for COP30” will be held on 11–12 October 2025. Organized by YOJAK Centre for Research and Strategic Planning for Sustainable Development, Paryavaran Sanrakshan Gatividhi, the Indian Social Responsibility Network (ISRN), and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Policy Research and International Studies (AIPRIS), the event aims to help shape a collective Bharatiya narrative for COP30.
From Policy to People: A Call to Lived Knowledge
The COP30 Presidency’s framing underscores that solutions cannot emerge from policy alone—they must be rooted in the lived realities of people who experience climate change first-hand. Civil society has always been a frontline actor in this space, translating global commitments into community-driven action.
In Bharat, this approach is not new; it is intrinsic to the concept of Anubhūti—a holistic form of knowing derived from experience, observation, and reflection. From ancient water conservation systems and seed diversity practices to the reverence for forests and sacred groves, communities have long embodied climate responsibility as a way of life. These practices were not framed as “climate action” but as Dharma—a moral, social, and ecological order ensuring balance and continuity.
Such traditions, still vibrant across the country, offer the world an alternative lexicon—one rooted not in crisis or carbon, but in care and coexistence.
A Dialogue Rooted in Civilizational Wisdom
The upcoming dialogue seeks to build on this foundation. Its sessions will explore how principles of Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), biodiversity stewardship, and community-led adaptation can shape a new narrative for the Global South. The discussions will look at how regenerative livelihoods, traditional cultural practices, modern technologies, and cooperative networks can work together to foster resilience and self-reliance.
Importantly, the dialogue is not confined to expert deliberations—it is a space for co-creating a shared vocabulary and framework that reflects Bharat’s lived realities. Participants from across the country—community leaders, practitioners, scholars, and youth—will deliberate on how to express civil society’s voice on the global stage, ensuring that Bharat’s contributions are not peripheral but central to the evolving global dialogue on climate action.
Beyond the Settler–Indigenous Divide
Globally, indigenous peoples are now recognised as custodians of biodiversity, protecting nearly 40 percent of the world’s remaining intact forests. Yet, Bharat’s context is distinct. Here, the relationship between people and land has remained continuous—there is no settler–indigenous divide. All people of Bharat are indigenous to this land, connected through shared ecological, cultural, and spiritual lineages that have evolved in harmony with their surroundings.
Traditions such as Devrai (sacred groves) exemplify this continuity, placing forests at the heart of community, culture, and livelihood. These are not protected by law alone but by reverence, embodying a form of environmental stewardship that predates modern conservation frameworks. This worldview challenges artificial separations between people and nature and offers a lens of integration—where society itself is ecological, and ecology is social.
From Local Realities to Global Conversations
YOJAK and its partners have long worked to connect grassroots realities with global climate processes. During Bharat’s G20 Presidency, the Civil20 LiFE Working Group, coordinated by YOJAK, demonstrated how bottom-up engagement could inform international policy discussions. The forthcoming dialogue builds upon that experience, seeking to channel Bharat’s local wisdom and civilizational thought into the global climate discourse at COP30.
Rather than viewing the event as a single-point output, the dialogue is envisioned as a continuing process—an evolving exchange that strengthens collaboration across civil society and inspires self-defined frameworks for climate responsibility. It is a reaffirmation that communities themselves are the laboratories of sustainability, innovation, and hope.
Towards a Shared Future
At a time when global climate conversations often oscillate between ambition and anxiety, Bharat’s voice offers a note of balance. It reminds the world that sustainability is not a future to be engineered but a way of living already known and practiced by millions.
As civil society gathers this October, the dialogue represents more than a pre-COP meeting. It is an effort to reclaim the moral and cultural space of climate action—to speak from experience, act from responsibility, and imagine from harmony.
In doing so, it asserts a truth at the heart of Bharat’s worldview: that humanity and nature are not separate, that all people belong to the land they inhabit, and that the Earth—our Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam—remains a shared home for all.
Neehar M. Barve,
Fellow,
YOJAK Centre for Research and Strategic Planning for Sustainable Development.