Deepak Dwivedi
Understanding India’s geographical and climate features is essential for exploring opportunities for adaptation. Spanning 3.28 million square kilometres and comprising 15 diverse agroclimatic zones, India is highly vulnerable to cold and heat waves, erratic rainfall, droughts, excessive humidity, and aridity. The Third National Communication report, published in 2023, showed the rising temperature trend in India and highlighted the past decade as the warmest on record.
While every area in India has been found to be vulnerable to some degree, the Climate Vulnerability Assessment for Adaptation Planning in India report identified western and southern India as extremely vulnerable to agricultural droughts, while the northern, central, and eastern regions as moderately vulnerable. Additionally, the eastern and southern zones are extremely prone to cyclones and floods. This variability in the magnitude and type of climate impacts amplifies the range of events India must adapt to. Nonetheless, this variability only partly explains the country’s vulnerability. India shelters 1.4 billion people, 80 per cent of whom live in districts vulnerable to climate change, which enhances the severity of the country’s climate woes. The Financing Adaptation in India report, published in 2024, highlighted a funding gap, noting that the current resources are insufficient to support adaptation action and meet diverse state-level goals. Based on the updated State Action Plans on Climate Change, six Indian states collectively require Rs 444.7 billion ($5.5 billion) from 2021 to 2030 to address adaptation needs. Given the scale and diversity of climate issues, costeffective, multi-benefit strategies like Ecosystem-based Adaption (EbA) offer a practical solution to limited financing. Further, India acknowledges adaptation as an “unwelcome additionality” to development as it raises costs and its benefits must be assessed alongside the financial damage caused.
This is reflected in many Indian projects, highlighting the country’s commitment to costeffective adaptation. The Initial Adaptation Communication underscores the interconnectedness of economic, political, social and adaptive processes, implicitly supporting EbA methods with its holistic, human-centric approach. Nonetheless, while development interventions addressing adaptation issues are promoted, adaptive action at national and local levels remains fragmented. In the absence of a standardised framework for India’s varied adaptation needs, EbA offers a structured, impactful, and cost-effective solution. India’s emphasis on multi-benefit projects aligns well with this approach, strengthening the case for its mainstreaming. Further, India’s diverse ecosystems and adaptation needs, combined with its rich indigenous knowledge and grassroots engagement, create a hospitable environment for establishing EbA as a best practice. With its heterogeneous geography and traditional cultural practices, India holds tremendous potential to scale up EbA initiatives and leverage the already constrained finances to adapt economically
The Government’s current adaptation measures have begun to lay a foundation for EbA. Initiatives such as the Jal Shakti Abhiyan and Atal Bhujal Yojana incorporate principles of ecosystem-based solutions. Coastal health and fisheries sector programmes, including green fishing, halophyte cultivation, and seaweed farming, also align with EbA’s nature-focused and human-centric approaches. Identifying challenges is crucial to unlocking the true potential of projects and exploring opportunities to establish EbA as a mainstream solution. Recognising challenges that directly or indirectly affect financial flows into EbA projects is an essential step in broadening EbA in India. While these challenges are broadly recognised as global problems in EbA implementation, they carry specific implications in India’s context and must be examined accordingly.
