Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday invoked the “polluter pays” principle and said climate change mitigation must involve differentiated responsibility, with countries that have contributed less to global emissions bearing a smaller share of climate action costs.Speaking at the Munich Security Dialogue, Sitharaman said the financial burden of climate action requires differentiated treatment.She noted that India has increased its climate action spending from around 3.7 per cent of GDP to nearly 5.6 per cent over the past six years, investing domestically in renewable energy and carbon capture.“Six years ago, we were spending approximately 3.7 per cent of our GDP on climate action. Today, that figure is close to 5.6 per cent. We have invested the funds. We are not waiting for financing and technology to come from elsewhere — but they must come,” she said.The minister added that India achieved nearly two-thirds of its renewable energy targets four years ahead of schedule and would continue to scale up investments in the sector.Sitharaman was speaking on a panel titled ‘Degrees of Instability: Climate Security in a Warming World’ at the Munich Security Dialogue. She also called for greater sharing of climate technologies on a commercial basis, stressing the need for interoperability among technologies.The Finance Minister said allocations for environmental programmes in the Union Budget did not fully capture the total spending that would take place through projects during the year.International cooperation on climate change, she noted, had faced uncertainty since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, with his administration reversing several green transition policies, including withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement once again.