341 | ILDC

Land has become a decisive arena in shaping how communities experience both climate change and the push toward cleaner energy systems. As climate risks intensify, pressures on land already stretched by historical exclusions, competing claims, and ecological stress have only grown sharper. Renewable energy projects, adaptation infrastructure, and conservation initiatives all demand land at a scale that frequently collides with existing uses and customary access arrangements. These forces highlight the longstanding gap between formal land governance frameworks and the lived realities of communities whose survival is deeply tied to land, commons, and natural resources.

Across India, climate responses increasingly reveal contradictions similar to those seen in traditional development projects, but with new forms of dispossession. While renewable energy and climate interventions aim to serve broader public goals, they often rely on acquisition models and land-use changes that reproduce older inequities. Commons, grazing lands, and forest fringes spaces critical for fuel, fodder, and seasonal cultivation—are among the first to be enclosed, weakening local resilience and eroding collective practices that have long sustained marginalised groups. Women, Indigenous communities, and land-dependent households bear the brunt of these changes, as their claims are rarely recognised in formal titles or compensatory frameworks. A just transition therefore requires confronting these tensions directly, ensuring that climate solutions do not deepen the very vulnerabilities they seek to address.

The papers in this session collectively engage with these broader challenges by examining how energy transitions reformulate land relations, how climate vulnerability intersects with local governance structures, and how community-led approaches shape pathways for resilience. A shared thread across the contributions is the recognition that land is not merely an economic asset but a social and ecological foundation that underpins community identity and everyday survival. Whether analysing emerging pressures on commons, shifting institutional arrangements, or evolving patterns of dependency, the papers highlight the complex ways climate and energy decisions reverberate across local landscapes.

Another unifying concern is the growing role of legal and institutional mechanisms in mediating these tensions. Courts, administrative reforms, and policy frameworks increasingly influence how rights are defined, negotiated, or contested in the face of climate and energy interventions. The papers draw attention to how collective claims, customary rights, and community entitlements intersect with these systems, revealing both gaps and possibilities within current governance structures. Together, they provide a grounded understanding of how land and climate governance can be reimagined to support transitions that are not only carbon-efficient but also equitable and socially anchored.