New Delhi, Oct 28: IPE Global, in collaboration with Chintan Research Foundation, convenes the World Climate Readiness Summit 2026 - a landmark gathering of ministers, ambassadors, financiers, researchers and young leaders at the India International Centre on 28 October 2026, united in collective action and amplifying the voice of the Global South to accelerate the journey from climate ambition to climate outcomes on the road to COP31.

The Summit featured a welcome address by Shri Ashwajit Singh, Founder and Managing Director, IPE Global, alongside Shri Shishir Priyadarshi, President, Chintan Research Foundation. Shri Abinash Mohanty, Director and Global Sector Head - Climate Change and Sustainability, IPE Global, delivered the context-setting address. Special addresses were delivered by H.E. Jagnnath Sami, High Commissioner of the Republic of Fiji to India; H.E. Ali Murat Ersoy, Ambassador of the Republic of Türkiye to India; Shri Shyam Saran, President, India International Centre and former Special Envoy and Chief Negotiator on Climate Change to the Prime Minister of India; and Shri Krishna Vatsa, Member and Head of Department, National Disaster Management Authority. The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Deborah Mlongo Barasa, Minister-cum-Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, Government of Kenya. The programme also featured virtual signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between IPE Global and the Africa International Policy Research Center.

The clock on the climate crisis is not merely ticking - it is being drowned out by the silence of unkept promises.

Year after year, from the conference halls of the COP process to the corridors of multilateral finance, the Global North has pledged boldly and delivered belatedly, if at all. The USD 100 billion annually promised to developing countries arrives late. The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance remains a fraction of the trillion-dollar need articulated by developing nations. Adaptation finance continues to trail the real costs of survival. Loss and damage commitments remain more rhetoric than relief.

The Global South, meanwhile, is not waiting.

Today, IPE Global, in collaboration with the Chintan Research Foundation as Key Strategic Partner, organised the World Climate Readiness Summit (WCRS) 2026 at the India International Centre, New Delhi. Anchored in the call to "Echo the Voice of the Global South," the Summit is IPE Global's flagship convening - designed to turn grievance into agency, and ambition into on-ground, people-centric action.

Ashwajit Singh - Founder & Managing Director, IPE Global

"The World Climate Readiness Summit 2026 marks a defining moment - not just for IPE Global, but for every nation that has long carried the weight of climate vulnerability while contributing least to its cause. True climate readiness demands more than pledges; it demands evidence-based action, equitable finance and the political will to close the ambition gap. This Summit brings together ministers, financiers, researchers and young leaders to do precisely that- to transform the Global South from a subject of climate negotiations into its most powerful driver, on the road to COP31 and beyond."

Six Themes. One Mandate: Echoing the Voice of the Global South

The Summit's thematic architecture is a blueprint for implementation:

01.  Making Global South Climate-Ready: Building adaptive capacity, early warning systems and risk-informed planning for the most vulnerable communities.

02.  Accelerating Climate Leadership Across Regions and States: Decoding why some sub-national governments lead while others lag, and how gender-responsive planning and locally led adaptation can close the implementation gap.

03.  Navigating the Low-Carbon Transition: Balancing decarbonisation with industrial competitiveness through carbon markets, circular economy approaches, sustainable food systems and private-sector innovation anchored in NDCs.

04.  Young Leaders, Local Action: Placing youth and community-led adaptation at the heart of resilience.

05.  De-risking Investment: Mobilising private capital and building bankable, measurable climate solutions.

06.  From Climate Ambition to Climate Outcomes — Road to COP31: Translating pledges into measurable progress, with equity and development priorities of the Global South at the centre.

Abinash Mohanty- Director & Global Sector Head, Climate Change & Sustainability, IPE Global

"Climate readiness is not a future aspiration- it is an urgent present necessity. The Global South is already living the consequences of a crisis it did not create, yet it holds the most transformative solutions the world has yet to fully resource or recognise. The World Climate Readiness Summit 2026 is our collective call to bridge that gap- connecting ambition with investment, science with policy, and local action with global accountability. The road to COP31 must be paved here, today, in New Delhi."

The Summit takes place at a defining moment for India, which is charting its journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047 and seeks to carry this homegrown experience beyond borders. India's shared vision with partners across Africa, the Pacific, South and Southeast Asia and the Caribbean is rooted in the principles of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and South–South cooperation-sharing technology, institutional know-how and financing models so that resilience is built as a common endeavour, not dispensed as charity.

At the heart of the Summit lies an uncomfortable truth: the Global South is being asked to do more, with less, and sooner. Developing countries face mounting debt burdens, rising borrowing costs and an adaptation finance gap that widens with every extreme-weather season, even as cyclones, floods, heatwaves and droughts claim lives and livelihoods at an accelerating pace.

Shishir Priyadarshi - President, Chintan Research Foundation

"The central test is whether we can bridge the gap between global ambition and national capacity, and between commitments on paper and outcomes on the ground."

A Rallying Call Ahead of COP31

With COP31 approaching, the Summit aims to deliver a clear, consolidated Global South message on implementation, accountability and the means of implementation: finance, technology transfer and capacity building. Participants will identify practical pathways for turning pledges into progress, ensuring that climate action remains equitable, development-oriented and responsive to the priorities of the countries that have the most to lose- and the least to hide behind.

The World Climate Readiness Summit 2026 stands as a statement of intent: the Global South will no longer be a bystander to a global agenda written elsewhere. It will convene, innovate, finance, implement, and lead.