Moving forward on climate change planning - Lessons from Orissa

The document details how Orissa became the first Indian state to produce a Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP), utilizing a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to develop a five-year blueprint in six months. It highlights the importance of political leadership, inter-departmental coordination, and the integration of climate actions into state budgetary processes, while noting that planning can proceed despite significant information gaps in climate projections.

• Orissa is the first state in India to create a comprehensive state climate change action plan (CCAP), serving as a five-year blueprint to reduce climate change risk.
• The CCAP was developed rapidly over six months using a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to initiate a rapid assessment, followed by work from 11 sectoral working groups and five sub-regional stakeholder consultations involving approximately 500 people.
• The draft CCAP identifies 287 validated priorities across 11 sectors, with a projected budget of Rs 17000 crore (approximately £2.4 billion) over five years. The majority of the budget is focused on energy, forestry, agriculture, and coastal disasters.
• The plan categorizes actions into adaptation (136), mitigation (123), and those common to both (28), with 190 actions having state-wide impact and 66 targeting specific areas.
• A new Orissa Climate Change Agency is planned for the first year of implementation to serve as a single-window contact for the Government of India and external funders, providing coordination, advice, and supervision.
• The development process demonstrated that planning and prioritization can begin using available data even in the absence of detailed climate projections and vulnerability assessments.
• Success in the CCAP process was attributed to high-level political engagement, administrative coordination, and the integration of priority policy actions into the state's formal budgetary and annual planning processes.

APA

Hedger, M., & Sharma, V. (2010). Moving forward on climate change planning - Lessons from Orissa. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN-orissa-DIGI-MASTER1.pdf

Chicago

Hedger, Merylyn, and Virinder Sharma. Moving forward on climate change planning - Lessons from Orissa. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2010. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN-orissa-DIGI-MASTER1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hedger |first1=Merylyn |last2=Sharma |first2=Virinder |title=Moving forward on climate change planning - Lessons from Orissa |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=November 2010 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN-orissa-DIGI-MASTER1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hedger2010moving, author = {Hedger, Merylyn and Sharma, Virinder}, title = {{Moving forward on climate change planning - Lessons from Orissa}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2010}, month = nov, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN-orissa-DIGI-MASTER1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }