SFC hosted Shahana Chattaraj, Director of Research at the WRI Centre for Governance and Equity, on 16 October 2025, during which she presented the findings from an exploratory study, titled, ‘Migration and Resilience in a Changing Climate: How migration supports household resilience in climate vulnerable areas in India’, examining migration experiences and resilience outcomes across climate-vulnerable districts and destination cities in 3 Indian states – Gujarat, Odisha, and Kerala. It draws on a ‘climate mobilities’ framework that challenges popular narratives of mass climate-induced cross-border migrations, and seeks to go beyond vulnerability and disaster-risk reduction frameworks to better understand how a changing climate affects migration capabilities, patterns and outcomes in different contexts.

Rashi Agarwal attended the JETNET Annual Conference 2025 organised by the Just Transition Research Centre at IIT Kanpur, in Goa on 7-8 October, where she presented a case study titled, ‘Institutional Governance in Advancing Just Energy Transition: Case of Jharkhand’s Task Force – Sustainable Just Transition’. Developed jointly with Sarada Prasanna Das and Ashwini K Swain from SFC, with inputs from Anjali Patel, this case study assessed the Task Force to reiterate the importance of subnational institutions and governance for a just energy transition in India. Drawing insights from the Task Force for other coal-dependent states undergoing an energy transition, it recommends integrating transition strategies with state climate plans, strengthening institutional capacities and building implementable frameworks for subnational preparedness for energy transition.

“Mapping fiscal and financial instruments across different technology stages is crucial. Policies can’t just be reactive, they need to be sequenced and stable over time to sustain investment and innovation. For sectors like green steel, this sequencing should work in tandem with strong R&D investment, which has no substitute. In India, where industrial decarbonisation will depend on both cost competitiveness and domestic innovation, consistent public support — as seen in China — could be transformative” – Nikita Shukla spoke in the India Green Steel Network (IGSN) Sustainable Finance & Green Industrial Policy Working Group Roundtable, organised by Climate Catalyst, on 9 October 2025.

Ashwini K Swain was a panelist at a discussion on ‘Accelerating Demand-Side Energy Transitions Through Collaborative Governance’ on 2 September at WRI Connect Karo 2025 for People, Nature, and Climate. He highlighted the importance of decentralisation and capacity building of frontline agencies (such as city level agencies) to accelerate India’s energy transition and climate action.

Poonam Mangaraj presented her work on ‘Rethinking crop residue burning (CRB) through the lens of high-resolution observations’ at India Clean Air Summit (ICAS) 2025 organised by Center for Study of Science, Technology, and Policy. The findings were focused on weak linkage between Punjab–Haryana CRB and Delhi PM₂.₅, with meteorology, local emissions, and policy interventions (like GRAP) playing equally critical roles. She emphasised the need of GRAP to evolve from a reactive emergency response to a proactive strategy, alongside the need for an expanded, intercalibrated monitoring system to strengthen forecasting and guide effective long-term mitigation.

SFC hosted Rohit Azad, Associate Professor at the Centre for Studies in Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Shouvik Chakraborty, Research Associate Professor at Political Economy Institute at University of Massachusetts, Amherst for a discussion on their latest research on socially necessary green development in India. Some key takeaways:
– While one might assume redistributing income to the poor would reduce overall emissions the Indian case reveals a paradox. As poorer households spend more on energy- and carbon-intensive essentials like fuel and electricity, redistribution could actually increase total emissions. The authors call this the carbon inequality paradox.
– More equitable development will require more energy, but that energy need not be fossil-based. A renewable-led energy system can decouple growth from emissions.
– The study proposes: a detailed green development programme that involves redistribution to the poor and working classes via state-led provisioning, and curbing socially unnecessary luxury consumption of elites through direct and indirect taxes.