[Answered] Examine the necessity for India to lead the Global South following COP30 and G20. Justify how the upcoming BRICS Presidency offers an opportunity to resist hegemonic politics and promote multipolarity.

Introduction

COP30’s weak outcomes and G20’s fragmented leadership reflect declining global consensus. With major powers absent and multipolarity under strain, India’s credibility, demographic strength and G20 success elevate expectations for leading Global South coalitions.

India and the Global South: Why Leadership Has Become Necessary

Weakening multilateralism necessitates alternative leadership

1. COP30’s failure to secure fossil-fuel phase-out, diluted NDC commitments, and stalled Paris Agreement verification demonstrate systemic multilateral fatigue.
2. Over 80 countries demanded fossil fuel control, yet the Belém Declaration avoided explicit commitments. G20 Johannesburg saw boycotts and non-attendance by the US, China, Russia, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia, weakening collective decision-making.
3. This vacuum directly impacts Global South concerns—climate finance, adaptation needs, and just energy transitions—making India’s stable leadership indispensable.

Rising pushback against Global South voices

1. Major powers are signalling discomfort with Global South assertiveness.
2. Donald Trump’s “G2 is returning” rhetoric reflects a push toward bipolarity, sidelining emerging economies.
3. China–US rivalries have overshadowed multilateral forums such as WTO, UNSC, and APEC.
4. India, with its non-aligned legacy, G20 New Delhi Declaration success, and broad acceptability, becomes the natural pivot to safeguard multipolarity.

India’s proven ability to forge consensus

1. At G20 New Delhi (2023), India brought the US, Russia, EU, China, and Global South together—something Johannesburg 2025 couldn’t achieve.
2. India has introduced impactful multilateral initiatives: Global Biofuels Alliance, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) framework, Global Traditional Knowledge Digital Repository, Critical Minerals Circularity Initiative, Global Health Rapid Response Team.
3. This track record strengthens expectations that India can steer global governance toward inclusiveness.

Shared developmental challenges bind India with the Global South

1. India mirrors the structural realities of the Global South: high climate vulnerability (Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index), energy transition pressures, digital divides and supply-chain marginalisation.
2. Therefore, India’s leadership is not symbolic—it is representative.

BRICS Presidency: A Strategic Opportunity for India

1. Platform to institutionalise multipolarity: As BRICS expands to include Middle Eastern, African and Latin American economies, India can: strengthen South–South cooperation, expand BRICS+, resist domination by any single major power, promote balanced governance within a diverse group. This aligns with Hedley Bull’s pluralist international order, where power is dispersed to maintain stability.
2. Reform of global economic governance: India can advance Global South priorities through BRICS: SDR reallocation, restructuring multilateral development banks, fair climate finance architecture, resilient supply chains. With developing economies contributing over 55% of global GDP in PPP terms (IMF 2024), a collective BRICS voice strengthens bargaining power.
3. Countering hegemonic politics: BRICS offers India a platform to: resist revival of G2-style bipolarity, dilute great-power dominance in climate negotiations, advocate for UNSC reforms, prioritise equity-based climate and trade rules.
4. Harnessing India’s soft power and digital model: India’s DPI exports, vaccine diplomacy, and development partnerships with Africa, ASEAN and Latin America enable India to shape BRICS as a development-focused grouping, not a geopolitical bloc.

Conclusion

Influence rests on credibility and agenda-setting. India’s BRICS leadership can shape fairer multilateralism, reinforcing multipolarity and promoting Global South empowerment.