This is an initiative to stop recommending and rather start listening to grassroots leaders.
Mumbai:Climate Asia successfully concluded its 4th Annual Conference, Mitti Ki Baatein (Stories from the Ground), on Earth Day in New Delhi. The event drew over 150 participants, including grassroots leaders, civil society organisations (CSOs), climate funders, and policy influencers. The day-long convening served as a powerful platform to elevate community-driven climate adaptation and reframe locally led solutions as central, not peripheral, to the climate response.
Anchored in the belief that adaptation begins at the local level, the event placed the lived experiences of those most impacted by the climate crisis at the core of its agenda. With six sessions and over 15 speakers representing diverse geographies and sectors, Mitti Ki Baatein offered an unfiltered view of the challenges and innovations emerging from India’s climate frontlines.
Speaking at the opening plenary, Satyam Vyas, Founder of Climate Asia, said, “Mitti ki Batein is a reminder that solutions to the climate crisis aren’t always born in boardrooms—they rise from the soil, shaped by the wisdom of communities who’ve lived in harmony with nature for generations. It has now become a movement for climate action in India, paving the way for the country’s first national climate adaptation plan rooted in the voices from the ground. We are ready to take Mitti ki Batein to COP30, carrying with us the stories, struggles, and solutions of those most impacted by climate change.”
The conference featured sessions such as Stories from the Ground, where community leaders shared first-hand accounts of climate disruption and hope; Mitti Se Niti Tak, a policy dialogue connecting grassroots knowledge with institutional action; and Unequal Impacts, Unequal Risks, which explored the disproportionate effects of climate change on women and other marginalised groups. Each segment was designed to provoke reflection and spark cross-sector collaboration.
Among the prominent speakers were Padmini Chandragiri, a Community Catalyst from Ganjam, Odisha; Bitiya Murmu, Secretary of Lahanti; Gunjan Jain, Assistant Director of Climate Trends (also moderator); Megha Jain, Senior Adviser of Gates Foundation; and Sudipto Dey, Sustainability Editor of Outlook Business. Their diverse insights highlighted the urgency of redesigning systems that often exclude the very voices with the deepest understanding of local realities.
Reflecting on the event, Pallavi Khare, Chief of Staff, Climate Asia, said, “Mitti ki Baatein is not a regular conference, it is a platform that enables voices from the ground to reach national and global audiences. To deal with the current climate crisis, promoting locally led climate adaptation is not a choice, but a necessity. Many top-down approaches miss the critical nuances that need to be factored in while designing interventions at the local level. This is an initiative to stop recommending and rather start listening to grassroots leaders”.
Since its inception in 2022, Climate Asia’s annual conference has chronicled and catalysed critical shifts in the region’s climate ecosystem. The first edition established foundational priorities including human capital, grassroots innovation, and climate financing. In 2023, the dialogue expanded to include intersectional themes such as gender, mental health, and climate-health convergence. The 2024 Bengaluru edition, attended by over 400 stakeholders, emphasised feminist climate leadership and technology-enabled regenerative agriculture.
This year’s edition reaffirmed Climate Asia’s commitment to breaking silos—between funders and communities, between knowledge and lived experience, and between policy and practice. As COP30 draws closer, Mitti Ki Baatein has signalled that the future of climate action must be locally anchored, co-created, and community-led.