A people-led climate intelligence movement
gLocal monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems have become central to climate transparency. Under the Paris Agreement, countries must track emissions, adaptation progress and climate finance to demonstrate progress towards Nationally Determined Contributions. COP30 reinforced this through voluntary indicators for the Global Implementation Tracker, the Belém 1.5°C Mission and the Global Adaptation Target.
India is moving in this direction, emphasizing that stronger domestic MRV is needed to unlock both transparency and climate finance, while also underlining that developing countries need significant financial and technical support to build such systems. Additionally, climate finance must not only scale up, but also shift power to frontline communities and local communities, such as Indigenous Peoples. These communities, which observe climate change every day and bear its greatest impacts, must lead monitoring efforts, manage funds, and access resources that support local adaptation and environmental stewardship.
However, MRV systems still rely heavily on remote sensing, administrative datasets, and external expertise, leaving little room for community-generated insights. Tamil Nadu’s community-based environmental MRV (CbMRV) initiative gains importance in this context. It makes community-generated environmental intelligence a formal part of climate governance.
CbMRV model
In Tamil Nadu, climate change is reshaping daily life: In Erode, farmers describe rains turning into short, intense bursts and increasing heat waves; Along the Cuddalore coast, salinity is moving inland and changing tides are affecting fishing; In the Nilgiris, tribal collectors report reduced humidity in the forest and irregular flowering cycles. These signals first emerge at the smallest ecological scales, but because climate intelligence is rarely produced locally, policymaking relies on coarse data sets.
CbMRV was created to change exactly that. It enables villages to produce systematic, science-ready environmental data. It weaves traditional ecological knowledge with field-based monitoring of rainfall, temperature, soil and water health, biodiversity, fisheries, cropping patterns, livelihoods and even carbon stocks and emissions. This evidence is integrated into a digital dashboard that informs decision-making processes at the village, district and state levels. CbMRV therefore reframes governance as a partnership between communities and institutions, rather than as a top-down exercise.
The initiative began in 2023 under the UK PACT programme, which enabled Tamil Nadu to pilot a community-based MRV system that could support just transition goals. In collaboration with the Keystone Foundation and other scientific partners, three ecologically diverse landscapes were selected: Aracode (mountain forests) in the Nilgiris, Vellode (agriculture and wetlands) in Erode, and Killai (mangroves and coastal fisheries) in Cuddalore.
In these locations, communities have contributed generations of knowledge that have now shaped the indicators, monitoring protocols, and digital tools that support CbMRV. Carbon feasibility studies were conducted in parallel to assess how the reliability of village-scale data could support future community-centered carbon projects. In less than three years, each pilot village became a functional environmental information center with trained monitors, field instruments and digital systems capable of generating real-time data.
community climate officers
A defining achievement of the initiative is the emergence of 35 key community stakeholders (KCS) (farmers, fishermen, women, youth, elders, and tribal knowledge holders) who now serve as the first community climate stewards. They collect and interpret environmental data, can identify trends, work with local agencies, and help translate information into daily decisions for the foreseeable future.
CbMRV is also reshaping the flow of data through governance systems. At the panchayat level, it can complement Gram Panchayat Development Plans and programs such as Climate Resilient Village, strengthen vulnerability assessments, crop diversification decisions and natural resource management. Village-scale evidence at the block and district level can support watershed development, agricultural recommendations, and disaster preparedness. At the state level, CbMRV can improve the evidence base for climate investment pathways under the Tamil Nadu Climate Tracker, State Action Plan on Climate Change, Green Tamil Nadu Mission, coastal adaptation programs and the Tamil Nadu Green Climate Corporation.
The main goal is long-term institutionalization and the creation of a permanent green workforce. Training modules, applications, field protocols and dashboards developed under CbMRV are recommended for integration in community colleges, Industrial Training Institutes, forestry and agriculture institutions, Panchayat Raj training centers and State skill development programmes. With ongoing support, community monitors can maintain long-term environmental baselines and eventually replicate the system across larger geographies.
When the tools of science are shared rather than concentrated, and governance grows from the ground up, climate action becomes both more democratic and more resilient.
Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Forests, Government of Tamil Nadu; Pratim Roy, rural development expert and ecologist and co-founder of the Keystone Foundation; Tabinda Bashir, Adviser, Climate Change and Energy – Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Government
It was published – 15 December 2025 01:39 IST
