Dear Reader
I am writing to you from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the end of the Global Tipping Points Conference 2026. As wildfires in Indonesia’s Sumatra and Kalimantan blanket the region in haze, scientists and activists from across the world convened here to deliberate climate action ahead of the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31).
“Multiple planetary, social, economic, and health systems are approaching thresholds where small additional shifts could trigger large, potentially irreversible, and negative change,” the Kuala Lumpur declaration states, explaining the idea of ‘tipping points’. “We met also in the understanding that positive tipping points are real, that some are already moving, and that deliberate action can accelerate them.”
Back home in India, the monsoon ended with deficient rainfall and several parts of India are reeling from drought as the northeast monsoon begins, with a forecast of heavy rains in south India.
I am excited to introduce you to ISignal’s newsletter-first offering. Every Wednesday, my colleague and assistant editor Tanvi Deshpande will bring to your inbox the latest on climate, energy and the environment, complete with original reporting and context on the multiple crises that we confront.
By Tanvi Deshpande
The weather agency issued its first ‘October heat’ heatwave alert for Mumbai as early as October 8 this year, and it felt like the right moment to start putting together everything that is happening in the environment and climate change space into a weekly newsletter to document it beyond our deep-dives.
So, hello readers! We are The Warming Bell, a weekly newsletter by ISignal, focused on the most important developments relevant to Indian readers spanning extreme weather, disasters, climate change, environmental policies, climate-focused energy policies, health issues, international climate politics and generally speaking, all things environment.
First up this week, with the monsoon over, daytime temperatures are rising across the country as the IMD had warned. The world is staring at a ‘super El Niño’ developing in the Pacific, which has already affected India’s Kharif crops and the country finds itself responding to a crisis, as experts had warned.
Warmer days mean more cooling needs that require more electricity. Between July and September, India’s power consumption was already high due to a weak monsoon and coal supply could not keep pace with consumption, a new analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found.
Coal dispatch to power plants declined from 74 million tonnes (Mt) in May to 66 Mt in August and thermal power plants with coal stocks below 25% of their normative requirement increased from 32 on August 22 to 84 by September 30. On the other hand, solar energy remained the fastest-growing source of electricity generation in these months, increasing by 39% year-on-year, compared with 29% for wind and 26% for nuclear. Hydropower generation declined by 20% over the same period, the report pointed out.
Despite the solar surge, coal still dominates. When asked how can India reduce its reliance on coal, Prateek Aggarwal, Senior Programme Lead at Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) said, “India must accelerate co-locating storage with existing renewable energy plants to make better use of the transmission network and reduce curtailment. States should also diversify renewable deployment by prioritising locally available resources such as wind power and solar on water bodies, and offer special green tariffs to single-shift industries that operate during solar hours. In addition, regulators must design market mechanisms that bring clean, dispatchable power into the wholesale market, and prioritise tariff reforms that nudge investment in storage and distributed renewables.”
Manoj Kumar, India Analyst at CREA sounded caution against adding new coal capacity though.
“As solar increasingly meets daytime electricity demand and storage helps meet evening and nighttime peaks, new thermal capacity should be assessed against expected demand, renewable generation, and storage availability. This will help avoid building capacity that could remain underutilised as Indiaʼs power system evolves,” said Kumar.
India achieved its target of ‘50% electricity installed capacity to come from non-fossil fuels’ last year but the country still has miles to go before actual electricity generation from non-fossil fuels is able to phase out coal. The lack of a generation target, low efficiency of renewable power plants, grid congestion, lack of adequate storage capacity, and inflexible power purchase agreements are some reasons behind the gap in capacity and result, we had reported in September 2025.
Here are other developments worth your time this week:
The Highlight Reel
Globally, wildlife populations are plummeting. The populations of wild species fell by 73% on average between 1970 and 2022, according to the Living Planet Index 2026 developed by World Wildlife Fund. At a regional level, the steepest declines since 1970 were recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean (-95%), Africa (-80%), and Asia and the Pacific (-49%), the report found. You can read it here.
In March 2026, we had reported how, as habitat shrinks and conflict rises, Hathi Mitra Dal volunteers in Chhattisgarh work with forest officials to keep elephants and humans apart.
Global leaders met in Fiji before the annual climate conference COP to be held in November. Calling for greater flexibility, pragmatism and mutual respect, India’s environment minister Bhupender Yadav stressed on how “implementation must respect nationally determined pathways, allowing each country to transition according to its unique national circumstances and development imperatives.” This follows India’s long-held stance that other countries cannot prescribe its energy policies. Read his speech here.
Hundreds of residents of Maharashtra’s Thane have been opposing the development of an Amazon data centre in their residential suburb, citing concerns over how much power and water it will extract away from their use. Global tech giants like Google, Meta and Amazon have announced billions of dollars’ worth investment in India to develop data centres essential for artificial intelligence. Read about the residents’ concerns here.
The Bright Spot
A 32-month-old Indian-born female cheetah recently gave birth to five healthy cubs at Kuno National Park, taking the total cheetah population in India to 60, including 41 Indian-born cheetahs. This is the third Indian-born female cheetah to give birth here, which also begins the Botswana lineage in India. An adorable picture is here.
That’s all from us this week. See you next Wednesday!
