Abstract

Climate change perhaps is one of the important global challenges that having implications for food production, water supply, health, energy, etc. Comprehending these issues and initiating a coordinated action are prerequisite at national and global level. The authors set out to explore the challenges and the adaptive capacity of developing countries like India when faced with climate change. It is also clear that the adaptive capacity of India is low like other developing countries. The efforts initiated by the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol provisions are laudable but need to be bolstered with environmentally sustainable technologies, and promotion of energy efficiency, renewable energy, forest conservation, reforestation, water conservation, etc. What then becomes primordial is to reduce the vulnerability of these developing countries to projected climate change. India and other developing countries need to initiate and promote mitigation and adaptation strategies, bearing the cost of such an effort, and its implications for economic development.