On a warm September morning in Delhi University, a small group of students gathered on the lawns of Hindu College for a baithak (informal circle). Some held their notepads a little tightly, unsure of what the conversation might bring. Others spoke softly about conflict and climate change, trying to understand how the two shape each other. Not far away, in a government school, children were rehearsing a simulation on water-sharing. Their voices wavered, but their enthusiasm filled the room.
At the same time, a comedy club in Bengaluru was getting ready for something unusual. Eight comedians were preparing sets written entirely around climate change. In Goa, a repair café welcomed people carrying broken appliances, ready to learn how to fix what they once thought they had to throw away. And in the tribal hamlets of Masinagudi in the Nilgiris, young children took part in painting sessions, rallies, and conversations with forest officers about forests, livelihoods, and climate impacts.
Across the country, a shared energy was taking root. In just seven days, 94 gatherings unfolded across 16 states and many different kinds of spaces.
This was Climate Week India, held from 7 to 14 September 2025. It was shaped by two anchors, Jacob Cherian and Divya Narayana, along with dozens of partners. They built something that felt less like a formal programme and more like a living, breathing conversation happening across India at the same time.
Climate Week India was shaped by two anchors, Jacob Cherian and Divya Narayana, along with dozens of partners.
Jacob often says he wanted the week to feel like India speaking to itself about climate change with honesty, curiosity, and hope. To understand how that week came to life, you have to go back a few years.
It all began with a simple question
The gatherings that week reached places as far apart as Maharashtra, Kerala, Assam, West Bengal, and the Andaman Islands, but the idea itself began much earlier. Years before Climate Week India took shape, Jacob was part of a smaller experiment in 2019 called Bangalore Climate Week. It stayed with him because of a question that refused to leave.
“In 2019, we asked: what if climate action didn’t become a silo? What if people from different sectors came together and saw that they were all, in some way, part of climate action?” he recalls.
That question planted a seed and continued to appear in conversations with the early supporters. In April 2025, when the first circle of core partners came together to co-create the Community Agreements, the work began to grow. By August, weekly check-ins had turned into a national coalition. What began as a question had evolved into a movement that would eventually culminate in 94 gatherings across the country.
As Jacob spoke about this revival, Divya felt drawn in with the same sense of purpose. She had been part of the first edition through her organisation Jhatka, and the idea of co-anchoring the movement felt natural.
Bangalore Creative Circus launched Climate Week India 2025 with a vibrant Climate Carnival of art, games, and markets.
“I actually first heard about Climate Week back in 2019,” she says. “Since I was already working closely with Jacob, it felt natural for me to put my energy into this and co-anchor.”
Together, they began shaping not just a week of activity, but a feeling, a belief that climate conversations could be human again, and that action could come from ordinary people meeting each other with intention.
Building a week shaped by values, not formats
When Divya stepped in, she did not begin with schedules or logistics. She began with values. Her first aim was clear: create a space where people felt safe, respected, and inspired to speak.
“My early work was around co-creating our community agreements, goals, and the code of conduct. We wanted intentionality. We asked ourselves: how do we hold space for climate conversations in a way that acknowledges urgency but also inspires hope?”
This intention led to one of the week’s strongest decisions. Divya says, “I did not want a single panel discussion at Climate Week.”
It was not about opposing panels. It was about believing that people learn better when they are part of the conversation. To her surprise, partners embraced the idea. They were ready for a different kind of engagement that centred participation.
Kunal from ALT EFF felt this shift deeply. His team organised climate-themed film screenings across ten cities and saw how the values shaped the room.
“Climate is a space where collaboration is not optional. It’s the only way,” he says. “What Climate Week India did so beautifully was flip the usual format. It created spaces where communities led the conversations, where people could question, debate, laugh, disagree, and genuinely learn from one another.”
The Alt Eff Film Club’s Ahmedabad edition was held at UKBB, engaging local audiences with evocative environmental cinema as part of Climate Week India 2025.
He remembers audiences leaning forward, asking questions, and turning to each other long after the films ended. People were no longer passive. They were participating, and for him, that was the real magic, when a climate gathering stops feeling like a lecture and begins to feel like a community.
This spirit began surfacing everywhere. In stand-up sets. In repair cafés. In simulations and baithaks. In schoolrooms where children took their first steps into understanding climate action. Young people, especially, began to shape the week in powerful ways.
How young voices shaped the week
Among those who stepped in with enthusiasm was Vaishnavi Verma, founder of the student-led Climate Cadets Collective (C-Cube) in Delhi. She and her team had already imagined a Delhi University Climate Week, so when the invitation arrived, she was ready to step in. She says the invitation felt motivating because it was already on their list, and she knew she wanted to be all in.
That sense of clarity shaped the way she designed her spaces. “I have started calling them talking shops. I do not want to make talking shops,” she says, explaining why she avoided panel discussions.
Her approach focused on involvement. Students were not meant to sit and listen. They were meant to explore ideas, share experiences, and reflect together.
C-Cube designed five gatherings with this spirit in mind. The week began with the Climate Ambassadors Initiative 2.0, where students stepped into the roles of negotiators, leaders, and changemakers. The simulation brought learning to life and showed how young people imagine climate action when they are given space to think and act.
They then launched a call for submissions and received five to seven papers, encouraging research-led engagement.
The final day brought everything together through a community-focused baithak. It opened with a cleanliness drive, moved into a graceful Kuchipudi performance, and ended with awareness activities that invited people into conversation in ways that felt personal and grounded.
In a bid to do Advocacy through Art, Climate Cadets Collective invited the artist Lekhshman Raj performed Kuchipudi Dance.
As the Delhi gatherings drew to a close, the anchors noticed something important. Divya says, “I was really impressed with the depth of engagement from young people. They asked incredibly thoughtful questions. If you create real space for young people, not token space, they respond with curiosity, intelligence, and imagination.”
Across India, one moment captured this spirit beautifully. A climate-themed comedy night called Climate Punchlines, curated by comedian Brikesh Singh, brought eight comedians together to perform climate-centred sets for an intimate audience of thirty-five people.
Divya remembers how refreshing it felt. “It was really fun. And it showed me how comedy can mainstream climate conversations, making them accessible to people who may never attend a traditional climate event.”
Climate conversations had found their way into culture, humour, and everyday life.
After the applause fades, the work deepens
As the week wound down and photos began circulating online, Jacob and Divya were already thinking ahead. Jacob often says, “The week is just the spark. The fire has to burn throughout the year.”
With that in mind, the work behind the scenes began quickly. Teams started organising all the material gathered from partners across the country. SDG forms, photographs, videos, feedback, and other documentation were being compiled into a long-term impact report.
What mattered as much as the report was where the insights would go next. Divya explains, “We want to take insights back to panchayats, municipalities, district officials, especially where partners have done deep community work.”
This meant that conversations sparked in a classroom or café could find their way into local governance spaces where decisions about water, land, waste, and public areas are made.
In Havelock Island, children, locals, and travellers turned Andaman beach waste into art.
To keep the movement decentralised, Jacob and Divya began shaping a plan for regional leadership. They wanted more young people to guide the work. “We would love for new people to take over, especially young people. Not one or two individuals, but a core group of seven or eight.” Divya says.
These Climate Week Ambassadors would coordinate local gatherings, engage with local governments, support collaborations throughout the year, and eventually anchor Climate Week in their regions.
For Jacob, this direction held the heart of the movement. “This isn’t about building a brand. It’s about building an ecosystem.”
He often says that real change needs rhythm, not one-time action. A week can offer momentum. A network can carry it forward.
Across jungles, universities, comedy clubs, government schools, lakesides, cafés, and street corners, Climate Week India revealed something powerful. When people are invited with warmth and trust, they step forward. They speak, they act, they imagine, and they build.
This year, that door was opened wide enough for an entire country to walk through together.
All images courtesy Jacob Cherian and the Climate Week India team
