Climate Change is a major challenge and its impacts are being felt all over the world affecting vulnerable groups like agricultural / coastal communities, communities dependent on natural resources and those with constrained capacity to respond. The climate change action plans form an important policy instrument in dealing with the impacts of climate change. Thus, the study began with an analysis of the climate change action plans at the national and the state levels in India with an objective to understand their background, formation process, strengths and weaknesses and to know how far they are in terms of implementation. The Government of Maharashtra recently initiated the process of implementing Maharashtra’s State Adaptation Action Plan on Climate Change through a resolution passed in October 2017. It comprises of various action items for the state line departments (like Agriculture, Water Resources etc.) along with a directive for the district administrations to formulate the climate change action plans at the district level. The next part of the study was focused on how districts can formulate the climate change action plans, especially, in the absence of any standard guidelines. As part of this, a literature review was undertaken for understanding the relevant concepts (e.g. ‘climate vulnerability assessment’, ‘district level / participatory planning’) and to assess various published tools and methodologies for vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning. An exercise to compare development status of the district and its climate vulnerability was undertaken through comparing district HDI and district level vulnerability. Additionally, field visits were undertaken in three nearby districts (Palghar, Thane and Pune) along with meetings and interactions at ENVIS (the coordinating agency for this process) to gain a first-hand perspective from the policymakers and implementors who will be a part of this planning exercise on climate change response in districts and the role districts can play. Finally, a framework has been proposed which can enable district administrations to devise and implement the climate change action plans at the district level. This framework is based on the observations from the analysis of the national & the state action plans, the literature reviewed and the learnings gained from field work. A brief operational structure, the potential roles and responsibilities of the entities involved and the process to be followed, have also been proposed.