Uniting for climate change

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) has become emblematic of failed potential, largely due to the outsized impact of the Indo-Pak rivalry, which has derailed most efforts to form a regional consensus, or even get all of the region's players on the same table. But while Pakistan is an obvious party to the rivalry derailing Saarc, it is India that has made any effort to work together for common goals so difficult. Where Pakistan has consistently offered to separate bilateral issues from multilateral ones, India's hegemonic desires do not allow it to sit at a table where everyone is its equal, and its policy goals are open for debate.

Saarc has been effectively dormant since 2016, when India boycotted the summit hosted by Pakistan. That incident, early in the premiership of Narendra Modi, set the tone for years to come, As the region's dominant economic power, India has regularly used its influence to sideline the platform when it conflicts with its government's national goals. Its subsequent pivot to the Bay of Bengal Initiative (BIMSTEC), a forum excluding Pakistan, is a clear move to marginalise Saarc and pursue regional cooperation on its own terms.

This failure has catastrophic costs for a region on the front lines of the climate crisis. From droughts and smog to floods caused by melting glaciers and record monsoons, South Asia faces interconnected environmental threats that no single nation can solve alone. A functional SAARC is desperately needed to build shared resilience. It could facilitate crucial agreements on managing transboundary rivers, create a regional energy grid to accelerate the shift to renewables, and implement cross-border disaster warning systems.

Whether it is through Saarc or any other forum, India needs to show willingness to act in good faith to save the lives of millions of people inside and outside its borders by working with regional countries, rather than trying to trample them, because there is no way India, or any other country, can unilaterally address climate change.