Mohini, who is in her 50s, migrated to Haryana from Shahjahanpur, in search of employment, earlier this year. She couldn’t work as an agricultural labourer back at home, because, she said, the extended rain had made it hard for landowners. When I met her, she was removing water hyacinth from acres of mud flats. The owner mentioned the rains had flooded his fields, turning them into shallow ponds. He lost a season of farming plus spent money to clear the land when it dried. Hundreds of thousands of climate impacted landowners and workers exist. Who will pay for their loss and damage? Who will pay for them to adapt to a new era?

India has asked for climate finance to meet its own goals. We lose money every time we are hit by a climate event. By some estimates, Cyclone Amphan cost India 14 billion dollars. But step back into history. India suffered enormous economic losses during colonialism, as both its resources and bullion was taken away to build other empires. The lifestyles and growth these spawned beyond our shores precipitated climate change as we see it today. Today, India is rebuilding itself, after being leached. The finance it needs is not finance but reparations — a return of its own wealth so it can save its own people. While we shift to renewable energy and adapt to climate change in multiple ways, it is important that India’s history – and that of many other colonized countries — be part of the battle against climate change.