Climate finance in India has long been discussed in the abstract. Billions and tril lions of dollars have been projected, pledged, and promised. But for the communi ties that live with the changing monsoon, the failing borewell, or the rising tide, these numbers remain distant. This report begins from their vantage point, from where finance either makes life more secure or leaves people more vulnerable.

In the run-up to COP28, we kicked off our collaboration with Goodstep in Delhi on 1st November 2023, in which we collectively helped the INECC network integrate a justice lens into our climate resilience efforts.

The report highlights the immediate need of infrastructure investments for building resilience, especially for the poor and the vulnerable. It examines projects supported by the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Bangladesh, China and India, and suggests three climate resilience principles for Infrastructure investments for the PA alignment and seven pro-poor principles.

 A case study on the response to the fishing community during the lockdown that addresses livelihoods enhancements, food security, responsible production and consumption and changing trends in urban Mumbai. 

This story of change is about ‘building community resilience in a climate changing environment’ set in a remote ‘tribal’ or ‘Adivasi’ area of Andhra Pradesh. This effort fraught with constraints and

potentials is a huge, ongoing and lifetime challenge for those of us, who have been engaged in grassroots action in the Adivasi areas.

The purpose of this brief is to share information and the current state of play of AIIB projects in India. It examines all the twenty projects both approved and proposed since 2016 in India. It explores the key sectors in relation to their contribution to PA, SDG, Disaster and vulnerability frameworks from an Indian perspective. It goes on to briefly list out the kind of infrastructure required for a country like India which faces high levels of deprivation and vulnerabilities and draws examples of projects from other countries which could be promoted by the Government of India.

These inputs are a response to the tweet dated 10th April 2020 by Shri Jairam Ramesh, Chairman, Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

The activities outlined are easily relatable and explainable for certain SDGs linking them to the current Climate Crisis. The users of this manual will benefit from the activities provided as well as the children and youth who will be participating.

This policy brief has been developed as part of LAYA-INECC’s engagement on Climate Change and Community Resilience that expects to develop specific ecosystem based policy briefs.