Mainstreaming climate change into development: case of action plan to climate change in sub national level in India
Student name: Ms Padma Wangmo
Guide: Dr Kamna Sachdeva
Year of completion: 2011
Host Organisation: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Arabinba Mishra
Abstract: The effect of global climate change is expected to have its impacts felt across every sector,
predominantly acting as a decelerator towards global prosperity. Responses to the impacts of
climate change takes place through the mitigation of its impacts and adaptation to its impacts.
Both require actions to be taken in various sectors of the society for effectively dealing with the
repercussions of alterations in the global climate. With the differential magnitudes of
vulnerability spatially and global disparities in economic development, the populations of each
nation differ significantly in their ability to respond to the impacts of climate change. The
differences in their respective adaptive capacities coupled with the inherent characteristics of
climate change like uncertainties and lag period have rendered traditional adaptations as
ineffective, thus putting forward a question of how the impacts of climate change can be dealt
with in a more prudent, cost effective and sustainable manner. Recent focuses on analysing this
problem has been through a changed perception, through addressing the underlying causes of
vulnerability. Links between climate change and development is undoubted and increasingly
perceptible, with each one having an influence on another when stimulated. Recognition of this
inter linkage calls for an integrated approach to dealing with climate change, where, both
developmental and environmental needs can be adequately dealt with, thus, keeping both at a
pace that ensures sustainable development. Therefore, the need to integrate or in this context
“mainstreaming†climate change in developmental policies is crucial to maintain an equilibrium
between the two and avoid an overshoot of either of the two. This report brings under the radar
the need and the importance of mainstreaming activity in the context of climate change and
development through a case study at the sub national level in India.
Key words: Climate change, Development, Impacts, Mainstreaming, Adaptation & Mitigation
