Syllabus: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Context: Climate Transparency and MRV
- Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems are central to global climate transparency frameworks.
- Under the Paris Agreement, countries must track emissions, adaptation progress, and climate finance flows.
- COP30 strengthened this agenda through the Global Implementation Tracker and Belém Mission to 1.5°C.
- Voluntary indicators were introduced for monitoring progress under the Global Goal on Adaptation.
- India supports stronger domestic MRV to enhance transparency and unlock climate finance.
- India also highlights the need for financial and technical support for developing countries.
- Climate finance must shift power towards Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Need for Community-Based Climate Intelligence
- Frontline communities experience climate impacts daily and possess situated ecological knowledge.
- Existing MRV systems rely heavily on remote sensing, administrative data and external expertise.
- Community-generated environmental intelligence remains largely excluded from formal climate governance.
- This gap limits accurate local adaptation planning and community-centred climate action.
Community-Based MRV (CbMRV): Concept and Rationale
- CbMRV integrates community-generated data into formal environmental and climate governance systems.
- It treats governance as a partnership between communities and institutions, not a top-down process.
- The initiative enables villages to produce systematic, science-ready environmental data.
- Traditional ecological knowledge is combined with field-based scientific monitoring.
Design and Implementation of CbMRV
- CbMRV monitors rainfall, temperature, soil and water health, biodiversity, fisheries and cropping patterns.
- It also tracks livelihoods, carbon stocks and emissions at village scale.
- Collected data feeds into a digital dashboard used at village, district and State levels.
- The initiative began in 2023 under the UK PACT programme.
- It aimed to support just transition goals through participatory climate governance.
Pilot Landscapes and Knowledge Creation
- Three pilot landscapes were selected representing distinct ecologies.
- Aracode (Nilgiris) represents mountain forests and tribal livelihoods.
- Vellode (Erode) reflects agriculture-wetland systems.
- Killai (Cuddalore) represents mangroves and coastal fisheries.
- Communities shaped indicators, monitoring protocols and digital tools using generational knowledge.
- Parallel carbon feasibility studies assessed prospects for community-centred carbon projects.
Community Climate Stewards and Governance Integration
- 35 Key Community Stakeholders (KCS) emerged as first community climate stewards.
- These include farmers, fishers, women, youth, elders and tribal knowledge-holders.
- They collect data, interpret trends and support evidence-based local decision-making.
- CbMRV complements Gram Panchayat Development Plans and Climate Resilient Village programmes.
- It supports watershed management, agricultural advisories and disaster preparedness.
- At State level, it strengthens Tamil Nadu Climate Tracker and climate investment pathways.
Institutionalisation and Conclusion
- CbMRV aims to build a permanent green workforce through institutional integration.
- Training modules are proposed for ITIs, community colleges and Panchayat Raj institutions.
- Sharing scientific tools with communities makes climate action democratic, resilient and grounded.