The Budget and the climate blind spot

The Union Budget 2026-27 invokes resilience and sustainability largely through sectoral priorities such as agriculture, infrastructure, and urban growth, without distinctly articulating resilience and adaptation. What was notably missing was a dedicated focus and budget allocation for resilience building and adaptation, despite India having prepared a National Adaptation Plan. This omission seems starker given that the Economic Survey explicitly recognised rising temperatures, water stress biodiversity loss, and land degradation as threats to productivity, food security, and infrastructure sustainability.

Aligning the Budget along the path chartered by the Economic Survey could have placed climate adaptation at the core of India’s development strategy. Mandating climate risk  assessment for all large public capital expenditure would have helped ensure they remain fit for today and a warmer, wetter future. Also, a more nuanced approach to disaster finance, focusing on preparedness and resilient construction alongside relief, could have strengthened long-term climate readiness. Above all, internalising climate stresses and compounding risks acknowledged by the Economic Survey would have supported better outcomes for health and productivity. These critical gaps fail to align the country’s growth ambitions with the lived realities of a warming India.

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