Scaling climate adaptation from policy to grassroots

India is the ninth most climate-vulnerable country globally, with 430 extreme weather events recorded between 1995 and 2024, causing losses of $170 billion and impacting 1.3 billion people. India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for 2031–35 acknowledge these risks and emphasise the mainstreaming of climate resilience and adaptation into the country’s development strategy.

The updated NDCs strengthen adaptation across coastal resilience, infrastructure, disaster preparedness, heat mitigation, biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods. This aligns with global commitments to triple adaptation finance by 2035 and the adoption of Belém Adaptation Indicators at COP30. However, achieving these goals will require sustained financing and institutionalising adaptation from national to the grass-root levels.