Gender, Climate Risk and Firm-Level Adaptation: A Comparative Framework for Sustainable Regional Development in Karnataka and Wales

This project is in response to the Global Wales - Karnataka Partnership Call by Universities Wales. This pilot collaborative project aims to design and develop an innovative, policy-relevant framework to analyse the role of gender in firm-level climate change adaptation and mitigation behaviour, using Karnataka (India) and Wales (UK) as comparative regional case studies. In doing so, the project directly addresses Global Wales’s priority theme on net zero, green energy and decarbonisation, while establishing international institutional partnerships creating visibility and reputation of Welsh universities in India and research capacity development in India, thereby delivering clear benefits to both Wales and India. The project responds to growing evidence that climate risks, firm decision-making, and adaptation strategies are gender-differentiated (Gannon, 2025; Nyukuri, 2016; Omolo, 2010, Rao et al., 2019) yet insufficiently understood in regional industrial and SME contexts. By integrating inter-disciplinary insights from climate economics, industrial strategy, and gender studies, the project will develop a holistic analytical framework that links gendered firm characteristics (e.g. ownership, leadership, workforce composition) with climate risk exposure and business responses. The comparative design enhances innovation and impact. Karnataka, as a developing-economy region, faces acute physical climate risks such as extreme heat, drought, floods and supply-chain disruptions, requiring firm-level adaptation strategies, particularly among MSMEs. Wales, as a developed-economy region, faces lower immediate physical risks but significant transition risks, including decarbonisation, green regulation, and net-zero compliance pressures for SMEs and regional clusters. Examining these contrasting risk profiles enables mutual learning and policy transfer between regions.