The scale of climate compatible development challenges in India is huge as poverty is still widespread. Nonetheless, India has shown a strong belief and commitment in inclusive, greener and resilient growth, as acknowledged in the country’s NDC. Together with development programmes, with an emphasis on sectoral actions, this national pledge signals India’s sincerity about addressing global climate change issues while confronting the substantial development challenges that lie ahead for the country.

CDKN has been working for India since 2010, creating space for demand-led climate compatible development. We started with action-based research that addressed issues of climate change integration into disaster risk management and development plans.

Today, we are recognised for our work in moving from plans to implementation and knowledge networking. We aim to keep our efforts practical and scalable while responding strategically to India’ s pro-poor and resilience-creating growth scenarios.

In this latest edition of 'Climate and Development Outlook - India Special Edition',  we share and celebrate success stories from our seven-year journey.

Our stories include:

• applying co-benefits approaches in decision-making;
• piloting business solutions for decentralised rural electrification;
• future proofing blue-green city infrastructure from extreme heat and other climate-related calamities;
• integrating gender approaches into climate planning; brokering knowledge and raising risk awareness;
• and capability development at subnational level for evidence-based resilience planning.

We have also translated some shortcomings into learning experiences. Please explore our extensive resources: www.cdkn.org/regions/india

Picture: Kiran Jonnalagadda