At ‘India 2047 Building a Climate-Resilient Future’, organised by the Lakshmi Mittal & Family South Asia Institute, the Salata Institute of Climate & Sustainability, Harvard University, and MOEFCC from 19-22 March 2025, Aditya Valiathan Pillai presented findings from SFC’s report on India’s preparedness for a 1.5°C world, the current status of heat-related actions on the ground, and climate modeling that highlighted cities most vulnerable to the impacts of heat in the coming years, on Day 1 of the event. He also moderated two panels on Day 2 and 3 respectively – (i) Adaptation Frameworks and (ii) Centering Health and Livelihoods While Planning Adaptation Frameworks.

SFC and Prayas Energy Group co-hosted a roundtable discussion on India’s Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) on March 20. The session delved into key topics, including the scheme’s design, institutional framework, governance structures, target-setting strategies, and the dynamics of demand and supply and ensuring market stability.

We were thrilled to host Kelly Sims Gallagher, Dean and Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy at The Fletcher School at Tufts University and Director, Climate Policy Lab for a lunch conversation on 17 March 2025 with the SFC team on ‘Trump, Tariffs, and Transitions’.

Aman Srivastava attended the Australian Grants Meet and Greet, hosted by the Australian High Commission on 27 February in New Delhi. The event provided a platform to discuss strategic priorities and explore collaboration opportunities in areas such as renewable energy, clean technology, green industrialisation, and more.

Ashwini K Swain was at the International Energy Festival of Kerala 2025 in Thiruvananthapuram, talking about the Energy Transition Preparedness Initiative (ETPI), a project by SFC, Prayas Energy Group, Pune & WRI India. The project examines state-level energy transition efforts in 10 Indian states to document progress, highlight best practices, and draw lessons.

At the 8th Melbourne Forum on Constitution Building in Asia and the Pacific held in Taiwan in May 2024, Shibani Ghosh highlighted three core aspects of India’s constitutional set-up that will be impacted by climate change: federalism, fiscal flows for climate action, and rights, directive principles and duties. She discussed the constitutional challenges India faces in addressing climate change, and the legislative and policy measures implemented at the national and subnational levels. Co-organised by International IDEA, Constitution Transformation Network & National Taiwan University College of Law.

Sarada Prasanna Das was a speaker at the ‘Just Transition Dialogues: Empowering Youth for Economic Diversification in Indian Coal Regions’ organised by the Just Transition Research Centre at IIT-Kanpur on 19 June 2024.

Suravee Nayak was a panelist at the Climate Group’s webinar on ‘Winds of change: The path to a just and equitable green transition’ on 30 May 2024. Watch the session’s recording here.

At the What Works Climate Solutions Summit on June 11 at Technische Universität Berlin, Aman Srivastava presented on ‘Addressing path dependence in emissions-economy models for emerging economies’ and how developing countries can better explore possible low-carbon development pathways and align future policies with their needs.

“Our climate change discourse can no longer ignore the questions of climate justice for the most marginalised Dalits, Adivasis, women, children, and other socio-economically disadvantaged groups.” – Suravee Nayak at a session on ‘Climate Justice and Marginalised Social Groups in India’ at the Ambedkar Summer School 2024 organised by the Centre for Dalit Studies and
Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, South Asia.

At the 8th Melbourne Forum on Constitution Building in Asia and the Pacific, Shibani Ghosh highlighted a key constitutional challenge in India’s approach to climate change: dispersed law-making power between the Union and the states. “A complex problem like climate change requires extensive cooperation, knowledge sharing, as well as strategic partnerships across levels of governance and outside the government. Conventionally, the Indian federal set-up is not conducive to such engagements.”

Aditya Valiathan Pillai was a speaker at the Transitions Research dialogue on ‘Can We Survive and Thrive in Hotter Cities?’ held on 3 June 2024. “Grounding the heat action plans (HAP) within a regulatory structure and giving it weight is extremely important for anyone implementing HAPs such as a chief heat officer,” he said.

At the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s COP28 discussion on ‘Accelerating the Net Zero Transition in India’ in December 2023, Easwaran J Narassimhan spoke about the need for a climate law in India that’s less regulatory and more enabling in terms of being a guiding force for various ministries.

Bhargav Krishna spoke at IIT Delhi’s Centre of Excellence for Research in Climate Change and Air Pollution in December 2023 on what it would mean to centre health in air pollution policy.

Shreya Shekhar was invited by the Department of Economics at Christ University, Delhi NCR in January to talk about a career in climate and environment research, and her experience in working on energy economics in the Indian space.

Aditya Valiathan Pillai was a speaker at the State of Global Air’s conference on data, policy action and key gaps at the intersection of climate change, air quality and health in South Asia. He presented findings from his work on heat action plans in India and how the State can adapt to extreme heat.

In November 2023, Bhargav Krishna spoke to students at Ashoka University’s Young India Fellowship on how air pollution has evolved in the public consciousness, how the State has responded to it, and how culture has covered these events. He also talked about Delhi’s (and more broadly the IGP) challenges with air pollution, how it affects health, and what can be learned from how others have addressed it.

“We must ensure that the gender injustices present in coal ecosystems are not replicated in the transition to clean energy,” Suravee Nayak at the discussion on delivering a gender-inclusive climate transition in India organised by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Department of Gender Studies, London School of Economics on February 29, 2024.

At the National Disaster Management Authority’s national workshop on heatwaves 2024, Aditya Valiathan Pillai spoke about how the financing problems at the heart of India’s heat action plans (HAPs) can be fixed using Centrally Sponsored Schemes. “There are strong overlaps between these well-funded schemes and HAP solutions,” he said.

“Indian cities should keep investing in and expanding public and non-motorized transport options, even as it takes time for behavioural changes to fully take effect,” Arunesh Karkun said at the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) discussion on ‘Revamping urban transport to check congestion and pollution and increase economic efficiency’ on 22 August 2024.