Climate Risk · Finance · Foresight

Vidya
Soundarajan

Building the verified data infrastructure that makes climate resilience financeable — from the UNFCCC to the blockchain.

"Payment for Ecosystem Services failed not because the concept was wrong, but because the infrastructure to verify it did not exist. That infrastructure now exists. I am building it."

25+Years in climate systems
$1.5B+Blended finance structured
17Countries engaged
Vidya Soundarajan
Who I am

The gap between what science measures and what capital prices

I have spent 25 years at exactly that gap. From a Himalayan wetland in 1999 to a UNFCCC foresight workshop in Songdo in 2019 to a blockchain-native climate risk company today, the question has never changed: how do we make verifiable what matters most?

My career began in ecological science — MSc Zoology (Limnology), gold medallist, University of Delhi — and moved through WWF, the British High Commission, Oxford Policy Management and the global climate finance architecture. I have structured sovereign bonds, designed GCF programmes, advised governments and built field-level MRV systems across 17 countries.

In 2024, I co-founded Eyekyam Risk Resolutions on a single thesis: IoT, blockchain and AI have finally converged to make the infrastructure gap closeable. The work now is to build it — at scale, equitably, with communities at the centre.

I write about this at Below the Waterline on Substack — the part of the iceberg most climate conversations never reach.

What I bring

Six domains, one integrated practice

Each domain is grounded in 25 years of field, policy and institutional experience — not advisory at arm's length but work done inside the systems being changed.

01 /

Climate Risk & Resilience Policy

Foresight frameworks, resilience architecture, scenario development. UNFCCC Resilient Frontiers core expert (2019). GCF, DFID, UNDP programmes across 17 countries.

02 /

Blended Climate Finance

$1.5B+ structured across GCF pipelines, PPP concessions, resilience bonds and MDB instruments. Masala Bond, Wet Bond, Resilience Dividend Bond — from sovereign to hyperlocal scale.

03 /

Blockchain & Digital MRV

Co-inventor of REPROOF and VCDRs. Patent-pending tokenisation framework for climate data verification. IoT-satellite-blockchain integration for nature-positive infrastructure.

04 /

Nature-Based Solutions & ESG

$10M blended NbS finance raised. INR 100Cr+ pipeline. BIOFIN, TNFD, TCFD advisory. Director-level ecological footprint programme at WWF India for four years.

05 /

India & South Asia Foresight

8 years embedded in UK government as Senior Regional Adviser for Climate, Energy and Growth across South India. Deep access to MoF, MNRE, RBI, MeitY.

06 /

Strategic Research & Policy Briefs

Government-grade foresight briefs, evidence reviews, policy memos and strategic analyses for IIED, DFID, GCF, UNFCCC, World Bank and ADB. Fully remote delivery.

Career timeline
2024 — Present
Co-Founder & CEO
Eyekyam Risk Resolutions Pvt Ltd, Gurugram
Blockchain-native climate risk verification company. REPROOF, VCDRs, CRiP, Data DharamKaanta, ProbeMatrix.
2023 — 2025
SVP Climate & Nature / CEO, Iora Trust
IORA Ecological Solutions, India
INR 100Cr+ NbS pipeline. World Bank, USAID landscape programmes. Haritha Sowbhagyam Bond design.
2019 — 2023
Director, Ecological Footprint & Climate Finance
WWF India
$10M blended NbS finance. HSBC Climate Solutions Partnership. CDRI-GIRI Resilience Dividend publication.
2019 — Present
International Climate Finance Consultant
UNFCCC, UNDP, IIED, OPM, DFID, Maldives
Maldives GCF Country Programme. IIED/DFID £350M Evidence Review. UNFCCC Resilient Frontiers foresight.
2016 — 2019
India Programme Head, ACT
Oxford Policy Management / UK FCDO
£23M programme across six Indian states. Six GCF concept notes. MoF budget climate-tagging methodology adopted nationally.
2008 — 2016
Senior Regional Adviser, Climate, Energy & Growth
British High Commission / DFID, South Asia
8 years UK government. Masala Bond. $1.2B Bihar PPP. India Offshore Wind policy co-development with MNRE.
1999 — 2008
Programme Officer to Head, Strategic Policy
WWF India (multiple roles)
Himalayan wetlands conservation, Keoladeo NP, Ramsar sites. Water-Energy Nexus policy, WWF International.
Selected work

Publications & policy outputs

Peer-reviewed papers, institutional reports, working papers, op-eds and project frameworks spanning climate finance, ecological science, resilience policy and ESG strategy.

Articles, Reports & Working Papers 5 items
Global Commission on Adaptation · 2020

The Role of Domestic Budgets in Financing Climate Change

Global Commission on Adaptation / Global Center on Adaptation

2020
ACT Learning Paper · Feb 2019

Engaging the Private Sector in Financing Adaptation to Climate Change: Learning from Practice

Co-authored with Virginie Fayolle, Caroline Fouvet, Vandana Nath, Sunil Acharya, Naman Gupta & Luca Petrarulo

Action on Climate Today / UK FCDO

Feb 2019
ACT / FCDO · 2019

Engaging Private Sector for Financing the National Adaptation Plan

Action on Climate Today / UK Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office

2019
ADB Knowledge Repository · 2018

Climate Resilient Water Management

Asian Development Bank Knowledge Repository

2018
WWF India · Scientific Report · 2004

Black-necked Crane: Status, Breeding Productivity & Conservation in the Ladakh Himalayas, India

Field-based ecological study on one of India's rarest high-altitude birds. The scientific foundation of a 25-year career that eventually led from Himalayan wetlands to verified data infrastructure for nature.

From limnology to blockchain — the thread is unbroken: rigorous measurement at the source of everything that follows.

Op-Eds, Articles & Blogs 4 items
HT

Corporations Can Help Fight Climate Change

Hindustan Times Op-ed · 2019

HT

Financial Institutions Must Recognise Climate Risk

Hindustan Times · 2018

DtE

Heatwave: Passing Phase or a Natural Calamity?

Down to Earth Blog · 2019

DtE

Is India Ready to Face the Silent Disaster?

Down to Earth · 2018

Project Frameworks, Blueprints & Campaigns 2 items

Future Proofing of Aluva — Urban Resilience Blueprint

WS Atkins. Oversight of project and report. Resilience planning for a rapidly urbanising Kerala city at the climate-flood intersection.

Connecting the Dots — Campaign on Climate Change & Policy Inclusion

Multi-stakeholder policy dialogue linking state governments, private utilities and MDBs across South India and South Asia.

Current work

Eyekyam Risk Resolutions

Building the verified knowledge layer beneath every climate AI workflow — because a prompt is only as good as the data it trusts.

Eyekyam is a blockchain-native climate risk verification company based in Gurugram. We build programmable trust infrastructure that turns unverified environmental signals into audit-grade evidence that capital markets, regulators and insurers can price and act on.

Visit eyekyam.com →
REPROOF
Programmable trust infrastructure overlaying enterprise stacks. ZK-claim architecture with audit-grade API outputs for investors, regulators and insurers.
VCDRs — Verified Climate Data Records
Open protocol for tamper-proof, on-chain climate event recording. UNFCCC-compatible. The MRV layer the climate finance world has been waiting for.
Data DharamKaanta
Decentralised Data Oracle Network. Rural women and youth earn royalties as data scouts. Addresses INR 12,000Cr in unrecorded agricultural climate losses annually.
CRiP — Climate Risk Informed Pricing
Joint product with AuctusESG. Integrates verified climate risk into banking loan pricing. Primary target: RBI climate disclosure framework.
ProbeMatrix
AI-assisted incident investigation platform for climate risk events. Turns field signals into structured evidence chains.
Below the Waterline

Writing & long-form thinking

The part of the iceberg most climate conversations never reach.

Below the Waterline

Long-form analysis at the intersection of ecological science, sovereign finance and frontier technology. For those who want to understand the system, not just the symptom.

The Songdo Retrospective Series

A practitioner's account of UNFCCC Resilient Frontiers 2019 and how a moonshot worksheet became the architecture for what Eyekyam is building today.

Forthcoming: Moonshot on Paper

Inaugural podcast episode. The founding thesis of Eyekyam — and why Payment for Ecosystem Services failed, and why it will not fail again.

Hire me

Available for independent research & advisory

I take on a select number of independent assignments where domain expertise creates direct, measurable value. Current availability is immediate.

  • Climate risk & resilience foresight briefs
  • Climate finance strategy & instrument design
  • Nature-based solutions policy & ESG advisory
  • India & South Asia strategic intelligence
  • Digital MRV & blockchain governance research
  • Government-grade policy memos & evidence reviews
Indicative rate
USD 150 – 200 / hour
Project-based pricing available. Open to DFF, multilateral, bilateral and private mandates. Fully remote, globally available.