NABARD, WRI India Sign MoU to Scale Climate Change Adaptation

WRI India and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) have entered into a partnership aimed at having an integrated, systematic effort to address sustainable management of resources by jointly defining evidence-based economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable solutions to issues faced in rural and peri-urban India.

NABARD is the world’s biggest rural development bank and an accredited national entity of the two international climate funds, namely, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Adaptation Fund (AF) in India. NABARD also is the national implementing agency for the national adaptation fund established by the Government of India.

WRI India, an organisation driven by evidence-based research, provides innovative, scalable and implementable solutions for sustainable resource use toward low-impact and balanced development.

"NABARD and WRI India will work in the areas of climate change adaptation and mitigation, landscape restoration, energy access for rural areas through renewable energy, transfer of technologies, scaling up adaptation, tools based on best practises at global level for promoting sustainable development," said NABARD Chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala at the MoU signing ceremony.

“WRI India will bring global, multi-disciplinary research and leverage NABARD’s tremendous experience in rural development and its reach in working with states and local communities to address intractable problems facing rural and peri-urban India,” says Nitin Pandit, CEO, WRI India.

This partnership comes at a critical time with India signing the historic Paris Agreement, and one of the main commitments that India is making under the agreement is the creation of an additional carbon sink of 2.5 - 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide through additional forests and tree cover by 2030. Both organisations recognise the value of engaging in activities that help conserve natural resources, adapt to changing climate and enhance livelihood opportunities at different scales.

“Some of the priority areas for this partnership will be deployment of adaptation tools, local level adaptation planning, and restoration as adaptation approaches, specifically focusing on enhancement of livelihoods and the natural resource base. This partnership combines opportunities for India to meet its INDC and sustainable development goal targets using best practices in the local context and to scale impact,” says Nambi Appadurai, Strategy Head, Climate Resilience Practice at WRI India.