Mumbai Climate Week To Bring World Leaders, Business Giants And Youth Together To Drive Climate Action From Dialogue To Delivery

Mumbai: Over three days, February 17 to 19, the city will become a Global South climate leadership stage, as heads of government, global and Indian business leaders, climate innovators, philanthropies, youth and community voices come together to move from climate dialogue to action. Mumbai Climate Week (MCW) will do this through a central hub at the Jio World Convention Centre and a citywide network of campus, community and cultural events that showcase and scale real-world climate solutions.

Positioning Mumbai as Global South Leader

The global conversation on climate is being led by award-winning NGO Project Mumbai and is supported by the Government of Maharashtra, the Environment and Climate Change Department, MMRDA and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation

(BMC). It positions Mumbai as a living test bed for climate solutions that can be scaled across India and other Global South cities.

Speaking about MCW, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Mumbai Climate Week showcases India’s resolve to lead with action on climate, from the city level to the global stage. As Mumbai hosts leaders from across India and the world, including governments, businesses, financiers, experts and young people, we are sending a clear message that Maharashtra is ready to work with all partners to build cleaner, safer and more resilient futures for our citizens and for the Global South.”

“Mumbai has always been a city of grit and imagination, and Mumbai Climate Week is where that spirit meets the climate crisis at scale. This is India’s first citizen-led climate movement at this level, where ministers, businesses and experts share the same space as students, frontline workers and neighborhood volunteers, and where Mumbai can signal what climate leadership from the Global South really looks like," said Shishir Joshi, CEO&Founder, Project Mumbai and MCW.

The week follows a hub-and-spoke model. The three-day central hub at Jio World Convention Centre will host leadership dialogues, thematic tracks, the MCW Innovation Challenge, the Youth Green Innovation Challenge and a solutions exhibition arena.

Day 1 at the hub will also feature an Earth shot Prize debut evening focused on nature, food systems and people. The Earth shot Prize evening-led by the leadership team from Kensington Palace, UK is the brainchild of Prince William, and being presented exclusively at Mumbai Climate Week, will bring together global climate innovators, frontline solution-builders from the Global South, and leading voices from across India, to spotlight scalable solutions and inspire mass public engagement with climate action. Spoke events have already begun across campuses, neighborhoods and cultural institutions, and will continue through MCW, including road shows, art and media activations, and a Sustainability Mela that takes climate action into everyday spaces.

Space-Themed Session with Indian Astronauts

MCW will also feature a special space themed session where Indian space heroes Rakesh Sharma and astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, both Ashoka Chakra awardees, interact with school students as well as global leadership on 18 February to link space exploration, science and climate responsibility.

MCW is powered by a broad partnership architecture. IDFC FIRST Bank is the Principal Partner. Deloitte serves as Strategic Knowledge Partner, and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and IIT Bombay are Academic Partners. VaataVaran is MCW’s citizen-speak platform, inviting people to share their climate perspectives unfiltered. Through talks, poems, storytelling, song and other creative formats, it brings everyday experiences and emotions around climate into the heart of Mumbai Climate Week.

Thematic partners and ecosystem contributors include Ever source Capital, India Climate Collaborative, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and World Resources Institute (WRI) India, along with international networks such as Climate Group and C40, and business and industry platforms including Mahindra Group and Indian Merchants Chamber. YuWaah! by UNICEF is the Youth Engagement Partner.

Delegations are expected from over 30 countries, alongside leaders from Union and state governments, multilateral agencies, financial institutions, industry, philanthropy, civil society, academia and youth networks, with MCW’s success defined by solutions funded, partnerships formed, policies influenced and communities empowered after the week.

Global and national leadership at MCW

Mumbai Climate Week will feature an eminent line-up of global and Indian leaders shaping climate action across policy, finance, business and civil society. Confirmed international speakers include Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Rajiv Shah, representing The Rockefeller Foundation; Imad Fakhoury, Regional Director, South Asia, International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group; Amanda Leland, Executive Director, Environmental Defense Fund; and Clarisa De Franco, Senior Advisor, Allied Climate Partners.

From India’s public sector there is an expected galaxy of leadership in attendance which include Bhupendra Yadav, Union Minister for Environment; Union Minister for Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi, Minister for External Affairs Jaishankar, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Corporate Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal, among others. The city and regional leadership will also be present.

Jayshree Bhoj, Secretary, Environment, Government of Maharashtra; Dr. Acquino Vimal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs; and C. K. Mishra, former Secretary, MoEFCC and MoHFW, Government of India.

Business and finance leaders such as Amit Chandra (Managing Director, Bain Capital PE India), Ankur Gupta (Managing Partner, Brookfield Asset Management), V. Vaidyanathan (Managing Director, IDFC Bank), Jamshyd Godrej (Chairman and Managing Director, Godrej& Boyce), Nadir Godrej (Managing Director, Godrej Industries), Anjali Ravi Kumar (Chief Sustainability Officer, Zomato), Pratik Agarwal (Chairman, Serentica Renewables) and Sameer Sisodia (CEO, Rainmatter Foundation) will bring perspectives on capital flows, markets and corporate climate action.

The philanthropy and knowledge ecosystem will be represented by Rohini Nilekani (Chairperson, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies), Soumya Swaminathan (Chair, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation), Manoj Kumar (Founding CEO, Naandi Foundation), Satyajit Bhatkal (CEO, Paani Foundation), Mridula Ramesh (Founder, Sundaram Climate Institute), Seema Paul (Program Director, India, Sequoia Climate Foundation), Shishir Sinha (Executive Director, Clean Air Fund), Dr Veena Srinivasan (Director, WELL Labs) and other research and impact leaders.MCW will also see participation from leading voices in Indian cinema who have championed environmental causes, including actor and UN Environment/UN SDG advocate Dia Mirza and actor Bhumi Pednekar, known for her “Climate Warrior” initiative and work on sustainable lifestyles and the SDGs.