Last month, China’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, Liu Zhenmin, and his delegation visited India, where they attended two important meetings on climate policy and renewable energy, signalling that a thaw in the bilateral ties between the two countries is creating opportunities for collaboration on climate policy, experts said.Representational image. (Unsplash)Liu Zhenmin met Sibi George, secretary, ministry of external affairs (West) and exchanged views on the global climate agenda and Santosh Sarangi, secretary, ministry of new and renewable energy. These engagements signal that, after a period of limited diplomacy, India and China’s thawing relationship is opening up avenues for cooperation on climate and clean energy, researchers at Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) said.India and China have historically shaped global climate outcomes through aligned positions as the most important nations in the Global South. They have coordinated especially on the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) and equity in climate negotiations in the past.‘Framing India’s China Strategy on Climate and Clean Energy’ , a policy paper by Pooja Vijay Ramamurthi and Shruti Jargad at CSEP, to be released on Monday, argues that this engagement should be grounded in today’s geopolitical realities.The paper maps historical bilateral and multilateral engagement with China, providing lessons from the past, and identifies engagement in the future.Issues including energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, waste management, urban resilience, sustainable food systems are more likely to see cooperation because these are “low-politics” areas, the paper has said.More complex domains involving technology, knowledge, and financial flows include strategically sensitive sectors, such as EVs, batteries, solar, and wind components. However, these areas are key to enabling India’s energy transition and will require the creation of more nuanced regulatory and financial frameworks between actors from both countries, CSEP said.“It is also essential to strengthen alignment beyond the bilateral level through smaller groupings such as BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and multilateral development banks like Asian Development Bank (ADB) and New Development Bank (NDB), to develop shared norms and standards on climate finance, climate resilience, and green taxonomies and showcase climate leadership in the Global South,” the paper has said.The authors of the paper have combined historical mapping, document analysis, expert interviews, and policy workshops for their recommendations. They have also constructed an original dataset of 44 official bilateral engagements between the Indian and Chinese governments from 1993 to 2020, sourced from the ministry of external affairs (MEA).They focused on three main phases of climate and energy engagement between China and India. Between 1990s–2007, it was characterised by strong multilateral alignment and nascent bilateral cooperation. India and China coordinated closely in global climate negotiations around the principle of CBDR and development equity, while bilaterally focusing on environmental protection, minerals, renewable energy etc. From 2008 to 2015, there was far more engagement. Climate and energy cooperation expanded rapidly through Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), strategic economic dialogues (SEDs), joint research initiatives, and subnational sister-city agreements, according to the paper. But in phase III (2016–2026), the period was one of decline and breakdown. “Geopolitical shocks, including Doklam, Covid-19, and the Galwan clashes, severely curtailed engagement. Structural asymmetries widened as China consolidated its dominance over green supply chains, while India’s bilateral trade deficit deepened, including in green goods,” the paper states.CSEP has also recommended joint research, sister-city partnerships, and subnational exchanges on air quality, urban resilience, and sustainable mobility can foster trust and generate practical policy insights at the local level.“India and China built multifaceted climate cooperation for over three decades. Today’s economic and geopolitical realities demand that we rebuild on those foundations. We must, however, think differently about how to do it and in which low-risk, high-potential sectors,” said Jargad.