Vikrom Mathur

Transitions Research is organising two events at the intersection of AI and climate during London Climate Action Week. ➡️ Ways of Knowing: AI, Digitalisation, and Climate Adaptation On 25 June, from 4:30 p.m. (BST), in collaboration with SEI – Stockholm Environment Institute, we're bringing together diverse perspectives to explore how communities, governments, researchers, funders, civil society organisations, and technology developers experience and respond to digital technologies for climate adaptation. The session is built around a facilitated Perspective Swap exercise, through which participants will examine how priorities, concerns, incentives, and definitions of success vary across the different actors involved in adaptation. Learn more and register here:https://luma.com/ez4f5esu ➡️ AI and Climate Futures: Reimagining Climate Action in the Age of AI On 26 June, from 2:30 p.m. (BST), we are partnering with UCL to host an interactive workshop exploring AI and climate as a contested futures question. Through expert provocations and a participatory foresight exercise, the session will examine how emerging AI-climate systems may reshape resilience, governance, public infrastructure, knowledge systems, and sustainability transitions. Learn more and register here: https://luma.com/fo7ief9y

Foundations: Cities, Health and the Case for Building Differently | June 24th, at 4:00 pm (BST) | London Climate Action Week Looking forward to co-hosting our session with the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, University of Oxford on how place-based adaptation can help vulnerable communities tackle extreme heat. This session brings together researchers, practitioners, designers, and policymakers to explore how the built environment shapes health outcomes, and what it means to design and build cities with health as an explicit goal. The discussion covers urban health and infrastructure, low carbon and locally adapted construction, and co-produced approaches to governing healthy cities. 📍Victoria Library, 160 Buckingham Palace Road, London RSVP here: https://luma.com/q1ors6pz (Registration is mandatory)

Next Tuesday, June 23rd, at 10:00 a.m. (BST)| London Climate Action Week Excited to collaborate with the The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) for our first #LCAW event, "Climate Arcade: Gamified Simulations for Pro-Climate Behaviours". Shefali Khanna, Bharath Haridas and I will host this interactive workshop that will explore how games and simulations can help practitioners better understand how people engage with climate decisions and how programmes can be designed for greater uptake and impact. We invite you to come, watch and build your own game on critical climate problems in the Global South. I have attached the invite for your reference as well. RSVP: https://luma.com/gk1zyxg4 (Registration is mandatory)

Transitions Research is heading to London Climate Action Week to collaborate with thought partners, refresh our on-the-ground strategies, and engage diverse audiences in critical climate conversations through gamified simulations, future foresight, perspective-swapping and more! We will be exploring themes ranging across pro-climate behaviours, built environments, energy demand flexibility, AI in climate adaptation, and climate action in the age of AI. ⬇️ Find more about our events below 🔗 Register through this link: https://lnkd.in/du9mWt6c 📲 DM me to connect over coffee/breakfast. I’ll be there between the 22nd and 28th June! Partners: The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of Oxford, SEI – Stockholm Environment Institute, BIT, UCL #LCAW #LCAW2026 #ClimateAction

Excited to be heading to Mumbai Climate Week next week, especially with so much momentum building around climate action conversations. Transitions Research is hosting a gaming workshop on the 16th (Monday) to unlock civic participation for decentralised solar (registration is officially closed but if you want to know more about the workshop and attend, you can still write to rushaleeg@transitionsresearch.org ) Besides that, we are engaging in several other convenings, meetings, dinners, and catch ups throughout the week. I would love to squeeze in a coffee between sessions or one of the evenings I’m there to discuss the social dimensions of large scale transitions. Without people, our technical solutions to combat climate change remain underutilised. If you’re in the city and would like to catch up, let me know and we can try to find a time that works. Let’s continue the conversation offline. See you at #MCW

Delighted to be speaking today at the India Art Fair in their talk, Reading the Indian City, along with Annapurna Garimella (Art historian), and V. Sunil (Co-Founder and Creative Director of Motherland Joint). The session will explore how interventions in design and planning do not necessarily begin from ground zero. Cities are layered environments, constantly shaped by histories, cultures, and everyday practices. Through our work at the People’s Urban Living Lab(https://lnkd.in/dS_jpbfX), we are exploring how emerging Indian cities can develop sustainably in ways that are rooted in local culture and context. I’m glad to be sharing insights accumulated over the years through this work.

As we head toward the end of #COP30, the year of adaptation and implementation, we need a climate-ready workforce that can turn our goals into action. This transition must begin with city officials, who play a central role in delivering climate action plans in cities. We are hosting a webinar that will bring together experts to explore what it takes to strengthen climate capacity across India’s urban institutions. We will be joined by Mr. Abhijit Ghorpade, Director of the State Climate Action Cell, Government of Maharashtra (GoM); Dr. Debolina Kundu, Director of the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA); and Ms. Shruti Narayan, Managing Director, Regions and Mayoral Engagement at C40 Cities. The session will be moderated by Bharath Haridas, Programme Director at Monsoon Academy. 🔗 Join us on Thursday, November 27 at 4 p.m: https://lnkd.in/dtPjDkm4

Our fellowship to train city officials in Maharashtra in climate skills begins today. To build this technical capacity, we’ve assembled an expert faculty panel. They bring deep experience in climate-resilient urban development and have worked closely with government bodies. Each week, faculty members will lead live sessions based on their areas of expertise on topics such as heat stress, mobility, disaster management, public health, and more. Officials will also learn to navigate climate finance, understand urban governance, and identify key levers for action. Meet the faculty below! Divya Sharma (PhD)(Climate Group), Aditya V. Bahadur (Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre), Shruti Narayan (C40 Cities), Jai Asundi (Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy), Rishika Das Roy, (India Climate Collaborative), Sushant Figueiredo (Transitions Research)

Over the past few months, at Transitions Research, we have been quietly and persistently working to address one of the most pressing gaps of our time: India has ambitious sustainability goals, but lacks a skilled workforce to drive them. With cities being both hotspots of emissions and hubs of opportunity, city officials play a critical role in advancing local climate action. In response to this challenge, we are thrilled to launch the Climate Action in Cities Fellowship as part of Monsoon Academy’s Transform Programme - a Transitions Research initiative to upskill public sector officials in climate leadership. Through this fellowship, we will train city officials from the City Climate Action Cells across 44 AMRUT cities to design and implement city-level climate action plans that build low-carbon, climate-resilient urban futures. Read more below and visit the academy here: https://monsoon.academy/

What role does India envision for women in its #AImission? As Artificial Intelligence continues to transform sectors and workflows, launching skilling programs alone is not enough. As Angelina Chamuah and Nupur Khanter, Deputy Director and Research Associate at Transitions Research, highlight in their Hindustan Times op-ed, it is essential to bring more women into leadership, design, and governance roles. Enhancing the quality and focus of women’s participation in the AI industry requires acknowledging the diverse experiences of urban and rural women across different sectors. Skilling programs must be designed with these varied realities and skill levels in mind to ensure the AI transition does not further marginalise women. Transitions must be used as an opportunity to bridge existing gaps and AI, it all its offerings, must not leave anybody behind. 🔗 Read: https://lnkd.in/d_iNmEY4 #worldyouthskillsday

Four years ago, I founded Transitions Research with a clear purpose: to conduct applied social science research that not only investigates but actively drives sustainable transitions in India. Too often, sustainability and climate action are treated as technical problems in need of engineering solutions. But this framing misses the mark. The real challenge lies in transforming the complex web of social practices, norms and institutions that shape how we live, work, and govern. At Transitions Research, we see sustainability as a fundamentally societal issue - one that hinges on the everyday decisions of individuals, families, communities, businesses, and governments. The urgent question we pursue is: how can we rapidly and meaningfully shift politics, behaviours, social norms, and incentive systems to enable just and lasting change? Our approach is rooted in action research: we generate insights through participatory, context-sensitive inquiry and use them to co-create solutions interventions that catalyse social and behavioural transformation. We seek not only to understand the dynamics of change, but to be part of it. By unpacking the social dimensions at the heart of climate and sustainability transitions, we aim to illuminate new pathways for collective action. Happy Birthday to Transitions Research. Watch our story below!

Come work with me at Transitions Research! We’re looking for a Fundraising & Partnerships Associate to play a critical role in securing and stewarding funding from a diverse set of partners, including philanthropic foundations, corporate CSR arms, and donor networks or intermediaries. The Fundraising & Partnerships Associate will proactively identify and cultivate donor relationships, develop compelling engagement strategies, and collaborate closely with programme and leadership teams to align donor priorities with the organisation’s work. 📍 Location: Goa / Mumbai / Bangalore / Delhi 📅 Apply soon – applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis! https://lnkd.in/gmv4pvqa

Climate action is incomplete without people’s participation. But how do we shift mindsets, build sustainable habits, and transform individual and collective behaviour to promote low-carbon lifestyles? I’ll be speaking at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change's London Climate Action Week event, “Using Behavioural Science to Promote Low-Carbon Lifestyles in the Global South,” on June 26th at 3 p.m. If you're around, do join us as we explore how behavioural change can help mitigate climate change. We will discuss how we can strategise and build effective pathways to strengthen climate action through behavioural science interventions, especially from the perspective of the Global South. 🔗 Register: https://lnkd.in/d7vjJ-6X

London bound for London Climate Action Week! As part of Transitions Research, I’m especially excited to join conversations around societal resilience to climate impacts and the role of social and behavioural change in shaping low-carbon futures. This is a crucial moment to spark systems change and deepen collaboration. If you're attending, let’s connect - coffee, conversations, and new ideas are welcome! #LCAW #ClimateJustice #BehaviourChange #SystemsThinking

The mountains mirror a national dilemma: what do we do with the mountains of solid waste overrunning our towns, spewing methane, breeding pests, spreading disease, poisoning our rivers? Segregation at source is the beating heart of any waste system. Each plastic wrapper, banana peel, or battery tossed in the wrong bin nudges us closer to disaster. When wet and dry waste mix, recyclables are lost, and the chain collapses. As a result, landfills swell into mountains, spewing gas, leaking toxins into groundwater, drawing vermin and disease. Waste work carries deep stigma in India but we need an urgent mindset shift. Segregation must become inevitable, not optional, and our campaigns must be impactful, rewarding, and even strict where necessary. 🔗 Read my latest piece for Science Matters on how the Himalayas are turning into a dumping ground, and why it's time we take urgent action to protect them: https://lnkd.in/dJ2_8ibN

🇮🇳 India’s waste problem isn’t just about missing infrastructure - it’s about mindset. Despite a rich legacy of reuse and repair, we continue to treat waste as someone else’s burden, hiding behind “out of sight, out of mind.” Policy reforms alone won’t cut it - what we need is a deeper shift in everyday behaviour and social norms. This #WorldEnvironmentDay, in my piece for Observer Research Foundation, I argue that India's circular economy won’t emerge from top-down schemes - it must be built bottom-up by rewiring how communities see, sort, and value waste. We need nudges to start, boosts to sustain, and norms to scale. 🔁 Read more on why transforming mindsets - not just systems - is key to India’s circular future: https://lnkd.in/djyhZM5Y

Gig workers operate in constant transition, from restaurant to doorstep, from task to task. In a way, cities are their offices. However, platforms do not recognise delivery workers as employees, absolving themselves of any responsibility for occupational safety. As cities heat up, this lack of accountability is untenable. The responsibility of ensuring worker safety must rest with both platform owners and the government. Research Associate at Transitions Research Nupur Khanter’s powerful commentary for Mongabay India calls for our cities to be designed in a way that upholds the workers’ right to rest, relax, and find relief from heat. 🔗 Read here: https://lnkd.in/d3s4XRQk But the pressing question remains: When will platforms acknowledge their role in ensuring basic protections for workers and help steer the changes needed in our cities' frameworks to accommodate gig workers' working conditions. And when will governments step in to support and enforce these safeguards?

Communities in the Global South are responding to extreme heat in innovative ways. However, many of these adaptation efforts remain fragmented, siloed, and lack the necessary policy and funding support. Transitions Research, with support from the The Adaptation Research Alliance, engaged with grassroots organisations across the Global South to create this compendium of community-driven solutions to combat extreme heat. 🔗 Read the report here: https://lnkd.in/dvGHSqW3 These solutions—spanning five themes: nature-based, behavioural, infrastructure and design, technological, and advocacy and governance show that effective solutions already exist, but require large-scale support to evolve into successful and sustained adaptation efforts.

Moderated an insightful ORF session on "Climate Resilience and Adaptation Innovation in Informal Urban Contexts of the Global South", featuring Aditya V. Bahadur, Akanksha Sharma, Nguyen Hong Long and Thomas Tanner at #COP29. The panel discussed key structural and social obstacles to building climate resilience in informal settlements, institutional and infrastructural limitations unique to informal contexts, challenges in implementing tech-based resilience solutions, and more. Observer Research Foundation

It took us around two years to make this transformative sanctuary it is today, while resolutely navigating through the initial constraints of the area being largely non-motorable and inaccessible