2025 was a year of turning ideas into impact. Across India, initiatives we championed moved vision to reality. From Killai in Tamil Nadu’s coastal Cuddalore district, where WRI India launched its first Climate Resilient Village (CRV) pilot, to Mumbai’s Marol, where a barren plot blossomed into a 3.5-acre urban forest, our work led to meaningful outcomes. We scaled our landscape restoration work with our efforts in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district, culminating in a demonstration of the power of community-led action. Moving west, a structured 72-hour pilot using groundnut shell briquettes, in a textile processing unit in Surat, saw a significant reduction in their overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This innovation, which does not require existing boilers to be modified, will pave the way for greening MSMEs dependent on coal-fed boilers.

At the national level, our technical inputs helped inform the Bharat Zero Emission Trucking (ZET) Policy Advisory, while our research is informing the next version of the PM KUSUM scheme that incentivizes the solarization of irrigation pumps as well as the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana (PMSGMBY) scheme that aims to install rooftop solar energy systems in 1 crore households by FY27.

However, creating lasting change goes beyond project implementation; it demands shifting mindsets, strengthening systems and forging partnerships that endure. We, at WRI India, have spent the past year thinking deeply about how we can sustain impact at scale. Here are four ways we did things differently in 2025 –

1. Incubating Alliances

Shaping cross-sector coalitions to address systemic challenges requires cocreating solutions with diverse stakeholders. This approach not only helps incubate emerging technologies but also identifies new research and enables diverse viewpoints to flourish, strengthening larger picture thinking. Collaborative platforms that focus on cocreating solutions – such as the Battery360 Alliance that promotes a sustainable battery value chain, a national coalition for urban nature-based solutions (NbS), and the CI-NERGY Alliance focused on accelerating clean energy adoption – can help amplify solutions and drive systems-level transformation.

2. Curating Conversations around Exhibitions and Convenings

From mitigating the impact of climate hazards to tackling urban mobility issues, quality data is key to unlocking critical insights and accelerating real-time change. Transforming complex swathes of data into easily understandable content and visualizations can be compelling, effectively nudging decision-makers to take faster action. Public convenings, such as Namma Raste that reimagines urban mobility, and devising a regional spatial strategy for Bodoland, incorporated interactive maps and topography models to make the intangible visible. More recently, RESTORE 2025, which envisions "Restoration for a Harit Bharat," featured a vibrant exhibition showcasing the work of the Restoration Champions shaping resilient and sustainable food and land use systems.

3. Building Public Goods

Building products that are easy to use is always challenging. Platforms such as SHIFT Transport, Transport Analytics Hub and Energy Policy Simulator (EPS) are open-source with simple interfaces that run quick and light simulations using data from Indian government agencies, peer-reviewed journals and other reputed sources. Other tools that enable informed decision-making, such as the ASCENT tool for net-zero climate planning and the FACt tool for EV charging economics, help cities and states model decarbonization pathways and scale EV infrastructure, respectively. While the tools are intuitive, our focus is on increasing and enhancing usability, and we are constantly evolving. The recent launch of the Citizen Science App, for instance, is a tool for participatory landscape restoration, allowing local communities to collect GPS data and photos to track restoration activities. While in the agriculture sector, a collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research (DOGR) saw the development of training modules on improving postharvest practices.

4. Supporting New Policy Facilities

Several big cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, as well as smaller cities like Nashik, Solapur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, have recognized their increasing vulnerability to climate change and developed climate action plans with WRI India’s technical support. In the case of Mumbai, the Environment and Climate Change Department (ENVCC) was established to take forward the Mumbai Climate Action Plan while Bengaluru instituted the Climate Action Cell to take forward the implementation of the Bengaluru Climate Action and Resilience Plan. At the national level we partnered with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) to facilitate the establishment of a Project Preparation Facility (PPF) to help Indian cities identify, develop, and finance climate adaption and resilience projects.

As India charts its way to a low-carbon future, our focus will not just be on delivering impact but will also center on inclusive, resilient and balanced development. We will continue to count it, change it and scale it as we learn, share knowledge, collaborate, cocreate, implement, test and pivot. As we continue our work, grounded in our mission to achieve meaningful and sustained impact, we look forward to your continued support in the new year.