As discussions on climate change shift toward climate finance, the imperative to ensure a sustainable climate transition is increasingly evident. India, being ranked as the sixth-most-affected country by extreme weather events over the past three decades (Germanwatch, 2025; Krishnamurthy, 2025), underscores the pressing need for climate action. Approximately 85% of Indian districts are now susceptible to at least one or more extreme climate events, including floods, droughts, cyclones, and heatwaves (Nandi, 2024). It is, therefore, crucial that we comprehend the disparate impacts of climate change on different states, local governments, and communities. We must adopt a bottom-up approach, focusing on the most affected communities, and tailor transition strategies to meet their specific needs. A place-based transition framework can help ensure this, providing a realistic picture of financing gaps and enabling more precise climate action, including mitigation and adaptation strategies at the subnational level.
Why is there a need to review our climate mitigation strategies?
India has 1.4 billion inhabitants across 127 agroclimatic zones and 73 sub-zones (NRAA, 2022), which are categorised based on soil type, rainfall, temperature, topography, and cropping patterns. Every hundred kilometres, we see changes in socio-economic conditions, occupational structure, languages, human capital, and socio-cultural practices. There are clear variations in GDP contributions across regions, states, and districts. Not to undermine the varied strengths of macroeconomic frameworks at the sub-national level, and weak institutional capacities to manage such processes within bureaucratic systems.
Despite creating well-defined, broad, and structured climate transition plans, we often overlook fundamental questions in countries as diverse and unique as India. For instance, do the chosen pathways truly make sense for specific locations? Should micro-level efforts focus on mitigation or adaptation? Will extreme weather or the transition plans risk greater job losses in particular regions? What safety nets are necessary to mitigate these new risks? What is the current gap in financing? Which panchayats or municipalities contribute most to emissions?
Without addressing at least some of these questions and asking more similar questions, the climate transition effort remains hypothetical rather than implementable. The key concern here is that one-size-fits-all solutions, which often fail to consider local factors, and the lack of accurate, current data, frequently limit the efficacy and efficiency gains that climate-mitigation policies aim for. A precise assessment of local citizens’ daily necessities, such as energy, housing, basic infrastructure, and transport requirements, can only be achieved through a place-based approach, and this is imperative for the strategies to be effective.
Let’s take the example of Aurangabad in Bihar. A small district with a population of 2.5 million, nearly half of its land depends on rain-fed agriculture, while the other half is irrigated (NRAA, 2022). Moreover, local industries have an impact on socio-economic and environmental indicators within specific blocks of the district. Likewise, partial or complete cessation of sand mining often disrupts both formal and informal local employment within a defined radius. If such variations exist within a district, consider their magnitude at the state and national level. Therefore, every effort to mitigate and adapt to realise a cleaner economy and integrate best practices requires a detailed understanding of each nuance to develop suitable plans for panchayats, municipalities, and ultimately, the state and the country. Achieving this requires building consensus across the national, subnational, and local actors to define what a decentralised, localised, and customised transition process entails. Could place-based climate planning be a solution? If so, how?
Why a place-based approach is best
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2025), “Place-based policies are spatially targeted policies that provide support to a specific location to improve long-term economic development and sustainability. These policies are designed to address the unique needs and challenges of a particular area, fostering its economic, social, and environmental sustainability.”
Place-based development is not a new concept; all governments and multilateral organisations have continually explored and implemented it. In the Indian context, special economic zones (SEZs) are designated areas that offer businesses tax incentives and other benefits to attract investments and promote economic growth. Similarly, the Gram Panchayat Development Plan is a local-level planning process in India that enables panchayats to determine which development programmes should be implemented in the forthcoming year. Many states are implementing sectoral plans for local climate risk mitigation, as does the Union government. India’s NITI Aayog (2024) and the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (Balakrishna, 2025)[1] have recently conducted consultations to explore localised transition models. Likewise, southern states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala have already initiated a net-zero transition at the village level.
This is being done to understand the emissions profiles and climate-related vulnerabilities of dissimilar locations for three main reasons. First, it gives us a baseline for understanding physical and allied resources, which is essential for effective planning. Second, it helps us evaluate what support each region requires to prepare for potential disruptions in realising the climate transition, as well as real-time physical risks. And third, it provides us with a comprehensive understanding of the scale and nature of the emissions problem and the adaptations required – an understanding crucial for developing effective mitigation strategies. This is the cornerstone of rigorous planning, indispensable for effective climate action.
Such an all-encompassing, inclusive approach is crucial to empowering communities to develop customised solutions and build capacity, strengthening both assessments and on-ground impact. At the same time, as case studies are sporadically carried out across the country, a more robust approach is necessary, guided by the central government, to ensure that local emission profiles inform local development planning.
The way forward: Exploring an alternative approach
As India builds on its national transition plan, it must also develop localised adaptation and mitigation strategies. The latter will provide insights into specific risks and transition needs at a micro level. To create such place-based plans, however, we must evaluate each village, village council (panchayat), and municipality to quantify the emissions levels under each local authority’s jurisdiction and its ability to create potential carbon sinks to offset them. Kerala’s Nava Kerala Action Plan (The Hindu, 2023) and Tamil Nadu’s Climate Resilient Villages (Sahu & Venkatramani, 2025) have demonstrated how localised net-zero[2] planning can be achieved – and this has the potential to not only reduce carbon emissions but also to promote resilient rural development.
At the national level, the central government must leverage similar models and case studies to institutionalise policies and pathways for a greener Bharat, that is, India. This would involve an integrated ecological approach,[3] where transition plans are customised to the needs of districts, blocks, and panchayats/cities. Pilot projects carried out in Meenangadi, Kerala (Climate Group, 2020), and Palli Gram Panchayat in Jammu suggest we need more deliberation on effectively localising GHG emission assessments and developing micro-maps of potential climate risk hotspots.
Currently, calculating GHG footprints at the local level remains a challenge, primarily due to the absence of a standardised framework for measuring subnational and regional emissions. Besides, the aggregation of datasets at the district level makes it difficult to extract local insights from sub-district assessments. With clear policy guidance, support for capacity building, and interoperable data infrastructure, however, India has the potential to build a bottom-up transition model worth showcasing to the world. And the indisputable truth is that India’s climate commitments cannot be fulfilled without the involvement of its villages and cities — the places where development and decarbonisation most closely work hand in hand.
By Imad Malik, Engagement Lead, Climate and Sustainability Initiative (CSI). Views expressed are personal.
Endnotes
1. UNEP India and ILO New Delhi, as part of the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), collaborated with the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad, to organise a consultative meeting on ‘Mainstreaming Environmental Sustainability/Inclusive Green Economy Principles in Rural Development Planning’. P. Balakrishna, head of UNEP India, posted about it on LinkedIn.
2. Net-zero transition refers to a process where the amount of greenhouse gases emitted is offset by the amount removed from the atmosphere.
3. An ecological approach adopts a holistic perspective, viewing a given area as an interconnected system of natural and human elements to develop context-specific, sustainable solutions that balance environmental, social, and economic needs.
References
Balakrishna, P. (2025, May 6). UNEP and PAGE collaborate on green economy in rural development. LinkedIn. [LinkedIn post]. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pisupati-balakrishna-8b067190_greeneconomy-inclusivegrowth-ruraldevelopment-activity-7325407856764030979-h_hA
Climate Group. (2020, December 4). Carbon neutral Meenangadi: A bottom-up model for integrating climate action into development planning. The Climate Group. https://www.theclimategroup.org/our-work/resources/carbon-neutral-meenangadi-bottom-model-integrating-climate-action-development
Germanwatch. (2025). Climate Risk Index 2025. https://www.germanwatch.org/en/cri
Krishnamurthy, R. (2025, February 13). India among top 10 countries most affected by extreme weather events; economic losses amount to $180 billion over the last three decades. Down to Earth. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/india-among-top-10-countries-most-affected-by-extreme-weather-events-economic-losses-amount-to-180-billion-over-last-three-decades-report
Nandi, J. (2024, September 8). Pattern of extreme climate events across India changing: Study. Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pattern-of-extreme-climate-events-across-india-changingstudy-101725734502048.html
NITI Aayog. (2024, November 30). Mainstreaming climate adaptation into local development planning. Post on national workshop in New Delhi, bringing together key stakeholders to strengthen local climate resilience and governance, LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nitiaayog_pmoindia-nitiaayog-disasterriskreduction-activity-7313590993373564928-pqFD
NRAA. (2022). Accelerating the growth of rainfed agriculture – integrated farmers livelihood approach. Draft policy. National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare. https://agriwelfare.gov.in/Documents/121233187_rapfinaldraft (1)_repaired.pdf
OECD. (2025, May 19). Place-based policies for the future. OECD Regional Development Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/e5ff6716-en
Sahu, S., & Venkataramani, V. (2025, May 3). As climate change hits vulnerable communities, TN strengthens rural resilience. The New Indian Express. https://www.newindianexpress.com/xplore/2025/May/02/as-climate-change-hits-vulnerable-communities-tn-strengthens-rural-resilience
The Hindu. (2023, October 19). Net zero carbon campaign to be rolled out in four panchayats in Ernakulam. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/net-zero-carbon-campaign-to-be-rolled-out-in-four-panchayats-in-ernakulam/article67654200.ece
