India Must Prioritize Fairness in Its New National Climate Adaptation Plan, Say Researchers

Current Impacts

Climate change is reshaping India in real time through visible disasters across the country. Assam and Bihar face floods, Maharashtra has declared a drought, and Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu face drought-like conditions. Cities are also affected, with the Reserve Bank of India warning that extreme heat and humidity could risk up to 4.5 percent of India's GDP by 2030 through lost labour hours.

Policy and Spending

Government action includes six of nine missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change focusing on adaptation. Thirty-four states and Union Territories have prepared state-level action plans. The latest Economic Survey tabled in January classifies 5.6 percent of GDP in 2021-22 as adaptation and resilience-related, up from 3.7 percent in 2015-16. India is now preparing its first National Adaptation Plan to shape public investment in climate resilience over coming decades.

Urban and Rural Challenges

Urban adaptation often pushes costs onto households through private cooling measures like air conditioning, which remains unaffordable for informal settlements. In rural areas, existing solar irrigation programmes like PM-KUSUM mostly focus on individual pumps, which small, marginal, and tenant farmers struggle to own. Researchers Ishan Kukreti, Sony R K, and Sarada Prasanna Das from the Sustainable Futures Collaborative argue that adaptation must move beyond technical projects to address who benefits and how decisions are made.

Context

As global climate governance increasingly embraces the concept of a just transition away from fossil fuels, similar frameworks are needed for climate adaptation. Effective planning requires recognizing diverse regional vulnerabilities, from mountain landslides to coastal cyclones, and incorporating local ecological knowledge alongside official data.