5th IKI India Networking Workshop

Report

September - September 2025
IKI India Interface Project (GIZ IND) & The Energy and Resources Institute
GIZ & TERI

Building Synergies for Climate & Biodiversity Action: Highlights from the 5th International Climate Initiative (IKI) Networking Workshop

The 5th International Climate Initiative (IKI) India Networking Workshop was held on September 25–26, 2025 in New Delhi. The workshop brought together 114 participants, including representatives from Indian and German government partner ministries, IKI India project representatives and their implementation partners working to advance climate action and biodiversity conservation in the context of Indo-German cooperation. The workshop served as a platform to:

1. a) Facilitate knowledge exchange on learning experiences between project implementation, policy dialogues and international negotiations such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and
2. b) To support and strengthen bilateral cooperation between IKI projects and, German and Indian ministries.

Speakers highlighted the importance of bilateral collaboration between India and Germany in addressing the challenges of climate change and biodiversity protection. The now roughly 17 years long partnership between India and Germany under the IKI framework was acknowledged, noting IKI’s strong presence across India and the joint commitment of both governments and implementing partners. Since its inception in 2008, India has been a key partner of IKI. Currently, 26 IKI projects are driving progress, e.g., on climate goals, protecting ecosystems, promoting low-carbon solutions, and strengthening communities across India.

In line with IKI’s 2030 Strategy and India’s climate and biodiversity priorities, the workshop served as a platform for participants to showcase progress, share implementation experiences, and explore pathways to further strengthen climate action through bilateral cooperation. Through a series of discussions, technical sessions, and interactive dialogues, the event emphasized the importance of partnerships, and joint learning in accelerating climate and biodiversity action at scale.

Interactive sessions, including fishbowl discussions across each of the IKI thematic areas namely mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to the impacts of climate change, conserving and restoring of natural carbon sinks and conserving biological diversity, encouraged an open dialogue among participants and supported inclusive participation. A project poster exhibition highlighted outcomes, success stories, lessons learned, and the way forward for each project, fostering peer learning and cross-sectoral collaboration. Additionally, dedicated networking sessions enabled participants to further explore synergies towards climate and biodiversity goals.

Advancing Climate and Biodiversity Action Across IKI’s Thematic Areas

Discussions during the workshop were centred around the importance of local action and strengthening a common understanding of interconnectedness and synergies across projects.  For example, forest restoration boosts carbon sequestration and community resilience, and biodiversity conservation sustains ecosystem services and that leveraging the cross thematic synergies is central to IKI’s work in India.

The first technical session of Day 1 focused on strategies and initiatives for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in India. Experts discussed national mitigation strategies, sectoral decarbonization, and on-ground experiences from energy, industry, agriculture, and urban sectors.

India’s steady progress towards its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) formed the backdrop of this session. A presentation framed mitigation through two complementary perspectives: how India is sometimes seen as a major emitter, while being a rapidly growing economy perusing development within a carbon-constrained context. The importance of aligning future mitigation efforts with macroeconomic priorities and financing pathways was emphasized.

As a sectoral illustration, a technical session spotlighted an IKI India–supported initiative in the cement sector, one of the country’s hard-to-abate industries, highlighting a low-carbon innovation namely Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3) and composite cements that can cut emissions by up to 40% while reducing costs and strengthening resilience.

During the fishbowl discussion, the IKI India project teams highlighted the mitigation approaches embedded in their work such as fostering energy efficiency and clean energy adoption in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), enabling dual land use through agrivoltaics, promoting low-carbon construction materials like LC3 cement, and advancing decarbonization in the steel sector through resource efficiency measures. The discussion further connected field experiences with policy priorities, noting how state governments are preparing green action plans that strengthen capacity building and transparent emissions accounting. An interesting insight that emerged from one of the projects working in the steel sector is the lack of gender inclusivity in the hard-to-abate sectors. The project highlighted that given the nature of work, participation of women in heavy infrastructure field projects remains low. In terms of future pathways, the need for investment mobilization and the identification of an ‘ideal’ trade-off in various emission modelling scenarios were the two key areas that the discussion brought into focus, emphasizing the importance of aligning financial flows and analytical frameworks with practical mitigation efforts.

The session on adapting to the impacts of climate change explored strategies to address India’s growing climate vulnerabilities, underscoring the need for localized, context-specific approaches suited to the country’s diverse climatic, ecological, and socio-economic conditions. Adaptation was emphasized as an indispensable complement to mitigation, especially in regions where mitigation measures alone are insufficient.

A presentation outlined India’s evolving adaptation architecture, including ongoing efforts to prepare the National Adaptation Plan (NAP), its links to India’s Initial Adaptation Communication (ADCOM) submitted at COP28, and the role of national missions, State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs), and sectoral schemes in mainstreaming adaptation across levels of governance. Another presentation highlighted the Private Sector’s Role in Climate Adaptation and Resilience, emphasizing the urgent need to scale investments towards a climate-resilient, low-carbon economy. The session called for coordinated action among governments, financiers, and industries to unlock private finance through enabling frameworks and innovative financial mechanisms.

Discussions with adaptation experts during the fishbowl session brought out that the National Adaptation Plan should be integrated into existing state and local (ULB) action plans, such as the SAPCC, rather than creating additional standalone State Adaptation Plans. Accordingly, capacity-building efforts for adaptation need to be designed to support this integration, enabling state and local officials to embed national priorities into their current planning processes without adding new layers of work or parallel structures. Adaptation measures should also be incorporated into the initiatives of relevant sectoral ministries, and climate risk assessments should be reflected in local finance allocation to ensure that resources are directed towards building resilience. Experts underscored the need for cross-sectoral linkages connecting livelihoods, ecosystems, and infrastructure to ensure holistic resilience. Priority areas identified included urban planning, resilient infrastructure, water management, and ecosystem conservation. Public-private partnerships (PPPs), multi-stakeholder financing models, and evidence-based business cases were viewed as critical to bridging the adaptation finance gap and catalysing private investment. The session concluded that a systemic approach, combining top-down policy frameworks with bottom-up community engagement, is essential to enhance economic resilience, safeguard livelihoods, and protect vulnerable populations.

The session on conserving and restoring natural carbon sinks focused on strategies to strengthen carbon sequestration across forests, soils, and wetlands, emphasizing the need for integrated, landscape-based approaches that deliver ecological, social, and economic benefits. Expert presentations highlighted the National Mission for Green India as one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change which aims at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s forest cover. Another presentation emphasized on policy reforms and incentive mechanisms needed to scale restoration of carbon sinks through regenerative and landscape-based land management and the need to build restorative value chains that work with and for the local forest communities.

In the fishbowl discussion with project teams, participants shared practical experiences from forest landscape restoration, wetland rehabilitation, and soil carbon enhancement initiatives. They highlighted the importance of integrating biodiversity and livelihood objectives into restoration design. The discussion also stressed capacity building for forest officers, local institutions, and community organizations through targeted training and education programmes. Encouraging youth participation via school and college outreach was recognized as vital for nurturing long-term stewardship and environmental awareness.

The final session of the workshop on Conserving Biological Diversity emphasized ecosystem-based approaches, nature-based solutions (NbS), and the sustainable management of wetlands as essential pillars for safeguarding India’s rich natural heritage. Discussions focused on integrating biodiversity conservation into national development priorities and enhancing synergies between climate, biodiversity, and sustainable livelihood goals. Expert presentations outlined India’s Updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP 2024–2030), launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change at COP16 in Cali. The strategy aligns India’s biodiversity agenda with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) and defines 23 National Biodiversity Targets (NBTs) across three key pillars reducing biodiversity threats, ensuring sustainable use and equitable benefit sharing, and developing tools for mainstreaming biodiversity.

In the fishbowl discussion with experts, participants emphasized the need for greater policy coherence and coordination among national, state, and local stakeholders. It was agreed that biodiversity conservation must be mainstreamed across key sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture, and industry to ensure that ecological concerns are embedded in economic planning. The engagement of local communities, youth, and women was identified as critical for sustaining biodiversity outcomes and promoting inclusive implementation. Experts also discussed the importance of innovative financing mechanisms, including blended finance and biodiversity positive investment models, to bridge funding gaps and scale impact. An interesting opportunity discussed during the session was for IKI IND projects working on biodiversity and SME-focused industries to explore synergies and integrate biodiversity as a key action area, particularly since large industries already have the capacity to do so. Aligning biodiversity actions with climate and development priorities was seen as a way to unlock synergies and attract wider collaboration and investment.

The 5th IKI India Networking Workshop 2025 concluded with a reinforced sense of collaboration and shared vision for advancing climate and biodiversity action under the Indo-German partnership. Workshop outcomes are planned to further inform Indo-German cooperation on climate and biodiversity, aligned with IKI’s 2030 Strategy and the Indo-German Green and Sustainable Development Partnership.