The Climate Change programme functions as a cross-cutting theme across several programme areas of the Foundation. With a strong interdisciplinary focus, and guided by commitment to equity and climate justice, the climate change programme generates knowledge and policy outputs aimed at policy influencers and policy makers at the State and Central Government level. The programme also designs interventions to address thFe needs of the poor and marginalized communities by leveraging the existing capacities at the Foundation

Vision

The primary vision of the climate change programme is to widen the scope of research on climate change and sustainability to a more integrated trans-disciplinary view and promote science-driven, inclusive and integrated solutions.

Our thematic focus areas are:   

• Foregrounding equity and justice in in climate policy and action at the global and national level, especially through the carbon budget perspective
• Climate change impacts and links between development and adaptation
• Climate change impacts on agriculture
• Methodological innovation, including the leveraging of new techniques, in climate adaptation research.
• Policy and scientific support for Govt of India in climate policy making including both IPCC and the UNFCCC and related bodies.

We aim to place MSSRF research at the centre of climate policy and action debates by focusing on bringing new, paradigm-shifting and agenda-setting outputs to the arena of knowledge, policy, education and intervention in climate change.

We invest in:

• Analytical techniques, modelling and large-data analysis related to climate variables, resources and the biosphere (including both its elements and attributes),
• Natural resource economics and economics of climate change
• International comparison and meta-analysis placing national and sub-national climate action in the global context.

Synergising existing experience, knowledge and capacities in the Foundation towards the overall vision in climate change.

Our analytical work in climate adaptation has an all-India footprint. Other specific action-oriented projects focus on Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

• Designed, installed and made live a website, devoted to climate equity between nations in collaboration with National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. The website, Climate Equity Monitor, is the first of its kind from any developing country.
• Key role in mainstreaming the carbon budget perspective into national climate policy.
• Key support provided to the Govt of India to intervene on significant issues in the climate science-policy nexus at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the Working Group I, II and III Reports of the Sixth Assessment Report cycle.
• Several projects promoted in climate adaptation research, with special reference to climate change and crop production.
• Equity Assessment of Global Mitigation Pathways in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (policy brief link https://tinyurl.com/2p8xrfby)  authored by T Jayaraman, Tejal Kanitkar and Akhil Mythri
• Side event session on Climate Equity, Carbon Budgets and IPCC AR6 Scenarios at the Indian Pavilion during COP27 at Sharm-el-Shiekh, Egypt, hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on November 10, 2022, with speakers T Jayaraman (Senior Fellow, MSSRF) and Tejal Kanitkar (Associate Professor, NIAS), presenting on Equity Assessment of Global Mitigation Pathways in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (Video link of side event here https://bit.ly/3u437vh)*
• Prof T Jayaraman, Senior Fellow – Climate Change, MSSRF spoke on “COP27 new horizons in Equity and Climate Action” organised by National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) on November 29, 2022. The event was chaired by J.M. Mauskar, Advisor, Observer Research Foundation and former Special Secretary (MoEF&CC). Watch the full event here

*The video has be extracted from MoEF&CC’s YouTube link to November 10^th side events (Full Day) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeGfWq6ek48

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