State climate change action plans are treated synonymously with sustainable development planning. This approach usefully injects environmental issues into development planning, but represents a lost opportunity to internalize climate resilience. The study draws on an analysis of state climate plans in five states: Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh (HP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Odisha, and Sikkim. The states were primarily chosen to represent geographic and agro-climatic spread, and variability in donor organisations involved, with additional attention to agro-climate variability, size and, economic prosperity. Further, only states that had completed a draft report were considered. As of January 2014, the climate plans of MP and Sikkim had been endorsed, whereas HP, Karnataka and Odisha were awaiting approval.