The selection of Mahila Housing Trust and Mahindra Last Mile Mobility as finalists for the Earthshot Prize 2026 places two distinctly urban responses to climate risk at the centre of a global conversation: protecting vulnerable communities from extreme heat and reducing pollution from last-mile transport. Both initiatives are being recognised not only for the technologies or services they provide, but for their attempt to make climate action affordable, locally usable and capable of operating at scale.
The two Indian organisations are among 15 finalists in the sixth edition of the prize, which will be awarded in Mumbai in November. Five winners will receive £1 million each across the prize’s categories covering nature, air, oceans, waste and climate. The finalists were selected from nearly 7,000 nominations across 169 countries, according to the report.
That scale of competition matters because the Earthshot Prize is presenting urban climate action as a question of adoption rather than invention alone. Its selection framework has applied the idea of positive tipping points for the first time this year. Based on research associated with Tim Lenton of the University of Exeter, the framework identifies 51 solution areas that can accelerate decarbonisation, including reduced costs, ecosystem recovery and policy change.
The framework offers a useful lens for understanding why the two Indian finalists stand out. Mahindra Last Mile Mobility is being recognised in the Clean Our Air category for its electric three-wheeler transition. Mahila Housing Trust, shortlisted for Fix Our Climate, has developed a community-based model involving cool roofs, locally led Heat Action Plans and climate risk insurance.
These are different interventions, but they address a shared urban problem: climate exposure is shaped by everyday systems. Air pollution is connected to how people and goods move through dense neighbourhoods. Heat risk is connected to the quality of roofs, the reliability of local planning, the protection available to informal workers and the ability of low-income households to absorb financial shocks. Climate policy therefore reaches residents through housing, mobility, public administration and livelihoods rather than through environmental programmes alone.
Mahindra’s electric three-wheeler model illustrates the importance of building an ecosystem around a vehicle. Jason Knauf, chief executive of The Earthshot Prize, said the company’s business model includes the vehicle, charging infrastructure, financing and battery recycling. The organisation reports that Mahindra Last Mile Mobility has 400,000 vehicles on the road and that it is selling more electric rickshaws than traditional ones in India.
The significance of that claim is institutional as much as technological. An electric vehicle cannot deliver a reliable transition if drivers cannot finance it, charge it, maintain it or manage the battery at the end of its useful life. By placing these elements in the same model, the company is attempting to address the practical barriers that determine whether clean mobility remains a pilot project or becomes part of routine urban transport.
Suman Mishra, managing director and chief executive of Mahindra Last Mile Mobility, said the company’s nomination could help it expand in states where electric rickshaw uptake has been slower and enter international markets. She also said the company aims to deploy one million electric vehicles by 2031. The source report does not provide a state-wise account of adoption or explain how the target will be financed, so the scale and speed of that next phase remain matters for monitoring.
The air-quality case for electric three-wheelers is also closely tied to the structure of Indian cities. Three-wheelers serve short trips, feeder journeys and delivery activity, placing them directly within the dense, repeated movement patterns of urban life. Knauf linked vehicle transport in dense urban areas to high concentrations of PM2.5 pollution, describing last-mile delivery and drop-offs as part of the problem the transition is intended to address.
Mahila Housing Trust’s work begins from a different point: the unequal distribution of heat risk. Cool roofs, community-led Heat Action Plans and heat insurance for informal women workers combine physical adaptation with institutional and financial measures. The model recognises that lowering indoor temperatures is only one part of resilience. Workers and households also need warning systems, locally relevant planning and protection against income or health shocks associated with extreme heat.
Bijal Brahmbhatt, executive director of Mahila Housing Trust, described the organisation’s work as operating at the intersection of urban development, urban poverty, women and climate change. The organisation says its approach brings local governments, markets, academics and technical solution providers together so that communities can adopt solutions more easily.
This delivery structure is important because heat resilience often falls between administrative responsibilities. Housing conditions may involve households, landlords or housing agencies. Heat Action Plans require coordination among local governments and public services. Insurance depends on private companies and the design of products that informal workers can afford and use. A community-led model attempts to connect these separate systems rather than treating heat as only a public-health or environmental issue.
The report says the Maharashtra government, inspired by the programme, has piloted an insurance model for groups linked to the National Urban Livelihood Mission covering heat and rain. It also says Oriental Insurance has floated heat insurance for Delhi. These examples indicate how a locally developed intervention can move into public programmes and commercial insurance, although the supplied material does not establish the number of beneficiaries, the level of coverage or the outcomes of either initiative.
That limitation is central to evaluating climate solutions. Recognition can help an organisation gain visibility, funding, technical support and access to networks, but awards do not by themselves establish whether a model is effective across different cities or income groups. The Earthshot Prize provides all finalists with mentorship, resources, technical support and access to businesses, investors, philanthropists and environmental experts. The practical test will be whether those resources help the models reach places where infrastructure, finance and administrative capacity are weaker.
For Mahindra, the immediate challenge is extending electric mobility into states where uptake has been slow while maintaining the infrastructure and financial arrangements that support existing users. For Mahila Housing Trust, the challenge is expanding a model that depends on community participation and coordination among local governments, markets and technical actors. Replication cannot mean simply transferring a product from one city to another; it requires adapting the institutional arrangements around it.
The two nominations also reveal a broader shift in the way urban climate solutions are being assessed. A cool roof is not just a building intervention if it is connected to heat planning and insurance. An electric rickshaw is not just a cleaner vehicle if its deployment depends on charging, finance, recycling and policy engagement. In both cases, the solution is being judged by the system it can mobilise around itself.
The Mumbai ceremony will bring this framework into a city that the Earthshot Prize’s chief executive described as a global centre of culture, sport, finance and entertainment. It will also place attention on the practical urban questions behind the nominations: who can access climate protection, which institutions pay for it, how local governments participate and whether solutions can move beyond individual projects.
The evidence supplied in the report confirms that India has two finalists whose work connects climate action with mobility, housing conditions, informal livelihoods and governance. It does not yet establish the full outcomes of their programmes or whether the models can achieve the stated expansion goals. Those questions will determine whether the recognition becomes more than an international accolade and whether these initiatives can contribute to durable changes in how Indian cities manage pollution and heat.
