The blue planet is clearly under distress. The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Global Climate 2025 report reiterated that Earth is edging dangerously closer to breaching critical climate thresholds that, once crossed, could trigger irreversible long-term consequences. Economies, industries and communities need to anticipate the disruption this can unleash.
Initiatives held on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5—under the theme ‘Inspired by nature. For climate. For our future’—reflected a growing global awareness around the risks. But that’s hardly enough. Estimates point to at least a temporary breach of the all-important 1.5°C threshold over pre-industrial global temperatures.
Every delay and incremental lapse increases the risk of long-term damage. Decisive collective action is needed to minimise the scale and duration of this overshoot. For any country to chart an economic growth path, it has become critical to sketch a growth model that also contributes to climate resilience.
Consider that India is home to over 96,000 animal species and 47,000 plant species, including nearly half of the world's aquatic plant species. It ranks among the world's 17 mega-biodiverse countries. Its rich marine ecosystem supports millions of livelihoods. However, with frequent and increasingly intensive extreme weather events, India's natural wealth and coastal communities face mounting risks.
Addressing climate change has, therefore, become a strategic priority for India. Over the past 12 years, the Union government has undertaken a sustained effort to redesign environmental policies, strengthen regulatory governance, enhance institutional capacity and advance technological capability to build resilience and accelerate adaptation.
The National Adaptation Plan aims to build climate resilience for all stakeholders. Through a three-pronged approach that will strengthen knowledge systems; reduce exposure to climate risks and enhance adaptive capacity, NAP aims to provide a blueprint on how to integrate adaptation into national development plans and policies across sectors and regions, ensuring a systematic and long-term approach.
We must understand that climate action is a shared responsibility—and Indian industry has to be a critical driver in both mitigation and adaptation. Across sectors, businesses have invested in transformative solutions, from scaling electric mobility and advancing battery manufacturing to expanding renewable energy capacity and integrating climate-resilient operations. Efforts such as targeting 30 percent electric vehicle penetration by 2030, contributing to 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity, deploying grid-scale storage and retrofitting industrial infrastructure to address heat stress illustrate a proactive shift toward climate-aligned growth.
Despite this progress, critical gaps persist. According to recent estimates published in Lancet, India lost 247 billion potential labour hours due to heat exposure in 2024, resulting in an estimated $194 billion in income losses. Rising heat stress, water scarcity and extreme weather events are emerging as significant risks to productivity, supply chains, investment decisions and long-term competitiveness across sectors.
Stakeholders, particularly industry and smaller businesses, face significant constraints in responding to climate risks such as lack of localised risk intelligence; absence of practical adaptation tools and the gap in translating information into action. Access to finance remains limited and partnerships are needed to scale solutions and strengthen preparedness. In the absence of these enabling conditions, organisations struggle to plan effectively, invest with confidence or build long-term resilience. The need of the hour is coordinated action that closes these gaps and equips stakeholders to respond at the pace and scale the challenge demands.
Through the centres of excellence on sustainability, food, water and green buildings, the Confederation of Indian Industry has designed multi-stakeholder collaborations to support resilience-building across India. These region-specific approaches target vulnerable industrial areas, mainstream adaptation strategies and safeguard stakeholders from climate-driven disruptions.
To accelerate this progress, CII recently launched SAARTH: Sustainable action alliance for resilient tomorrow, an industry-led multi-stakeholder platform designed to co-develop scalable, investment-ready solutions that strengthen climate preparedness across regions and supports India’s transition to a climate-resilient economy. Through SAARTH, stakeholders will engage in policy dialogues and help shape regulatory mechanisms that enable effective adaptation.
The platform will provide the required tools and evidence to support industry decision-making, including access to localised hazard and vulnerability data to assess physical risks and vulnerabilities. In addition, SAARTH will help build the resilience of smaller businesses and value chains through capacity building, while improving access to finance, technology and partnerships.
For stakeholders across the country, the window for action is still open. The choices we make today will not only define the stability of our climate but also secure growth, resilience and sustainability for generations to come.
Chandrajit Banerjee | Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry
(Views are personal)
(cb@cii.in)