From Ambition to Action: A New Tool for Subnational Climate Planning
India aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2070. While the target is set at the national level, achieving this goal requires action at subnational levels by states, districts, cities and villages.
Over the past decade, states have developed state action plans on climate change (SAPCCs), several cities have developed climate action plans, and a growing number of gram panchayats have strengthened their engagement in climate action. While these are positive developments, decision-makers often lack the tools to plan climate action, specifically in subnational contexts.
Many existing tools are not available in the public domain or are restricted by paywalls. Others have overly complex user interfaces or require data and understanding of metrics that might not be available at the subnational level.
How does a city official or a Gram Pradhan decide which intervention, in which sector, will reduce emissions most effectively? More crucially, how can they plan and budget for implementing the different emissions reduction pathways?
Recognising these challenges, WRI India developed the Advanced Scenarios and Carbon Emissions Navigation Tool (ASCENT) – a spreadsheet-based tool for evidence-based climate action planning across India. Tailored specifically to India’s unique contexts, ASCENT can be used by states, districts, cities or villages to estimate emissions profiles and generate emission-reduction scenarios with associated cost estimates.
It aligns with international standards, including the IPCC 2006 Guidelines for National GHG Inventories and the Global Protocol for Community-Scale GHG Inventories (GPC), while incorporating India-specific emission factors and sector classifications.
ASCENT addresses these gaps through four key capabilities: comprehensive sector coverage, scenario-based projections, support for absolute intervention targets and open-source design.
Comprehensive Sector Coverage
Most existing GHG estimation tools focus mainly on the energy and transport sectors. ASCENT, however, offers comprehensive coverage across sectors and emission source categories in sectors such as buildings, industrial processes and product use (IPPU), and agriculture, forestry, land use (AFOLU). For instance, within the IPPU sector, it covers several fuel types (such as petrol, diesel, coal, etc.) in addition to 46 production types such as ammonia, carbide, petroleum and ferroalloys. Similarly, in AFOLU, it not only considers carbon sinks but also emission sources such as biomass burning. Therefore, ASCENT reduces the need to navigate multiple tools for different metrics and offers context-specific results, particularly for rural contexts that are often missing in other models.
Projecting Emissions Under Different Futures
Creating a GHG inventory is a crucial initial step in climate action planning, but it only offers a snapshot of past emissions. It does not project how emissions might change in the future under various socio-economic scenarios. For example, a city planning a metro expansion or electric bus fleet needs to understand not only current transport emissions but also how different mobility options, policy changes or even population growth could impact emissions over the next few decades. Without the ability to project future emissions under different scenarios, decision-makers risk investing in strategies that deliver less impact, or that become obsolete as conditions change.
ASCENT solves this by enabling governments to model and compare different emission pathways using three distinct scenarios:
Business as Usual projects emissions if current trends continue, with no new policy interventions. Existing and Planned Policies show the impact of commitments already in motion, such as state EV mandates, ongoing renewable energy projects and planned waste management programs. High-Ambition Pathways test bolder strategies aligned with long-term climate goals.
By comparing these scenarios side-by-side, decision-makers can identify which strategies deliver the greatest emissions reduction for the money spent. They can assess whether current commitments close the gap to climate targets or bolder action is required.
Instead of relying on assumptions, governments can choose pathways grounded in evidence to see not just their current emissions profile but also the long-term impact of each investment decision.
Moving from Percentages to Absolute Targets
Most climate tools work with percentages — like reducing transport emissions by 20% or increasing renewable energy by 30% — when setting targets or projecting emissions reduction pathways. But a city or district might not always frame its targets based on percentages. They could instead be working with concrete interventions, such as adding 200 electric buses or installing 50MW of rooftop solar capacity. The challenge decision-makers face is understanding how much emissions these specific actions reduce, what they would cost, and how to compare their options within sectors for the best return on investment.
ASCENT addresses these challenges by enabling decision-makers to work with both percentages and quantifiable intervention data to model scenarios and visualise their impacts. More importantly, ASCENT enables comparison. For example, electrifying 200 buses might cost ₹400 crore and cut emissions by 8,000 tonnes annually, while a 10-km metro expansion might cost ₹800 crore and cut 12,000 tonnes of emissions.
Using ASCENT, decision-makers can compare which option delivers the most impact per rupee invested. This is especially useful for subnational governments that are often working under limited budgets and must balance climate initiatives against competing development priorities. The result is climate action grounded in data, cost considerations and informed trade-offs between different options.
Open-Source Design
Finally, unlike proprietary tools, ASCENT is open-source and Excel-based. This lowers both the financial and technical barriers that government departments face when procuring international tools or learning new software.
India's net zero goal requires action at every level of governance. By providing decision-makers with a practical roadmap grounded in data, ASCENT equips states, districts, cities and villages with the ability to move from climate ambitions to financially viable and implementable strategies.
Learn more about the ASCENT tool in this Technical Note.