<p>In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of grasping the interplay between formal and informal systems for understanding risk in climate governance. Through an in-depth inquiry into Bhubaneswar City in India, the paper reconstructs how formal and informal actors strategize, interpret, adapt, and transform themselves in the context of various emerging institutional responses for slum redevelopment as adaptation, risks, and development priorities of the city. Drawing on a qualitative study of two slum redevelopment projects which are characterized by local conflict and overlapping climate and non-climatic risks, this paper captures the complex interplay between the formal and informal actors/institutional configurations that constantly shape each other through conflict and confrontation; suspicious mutual observation, self-organization as strategy; selective use of enforcement of formal institutions; and strategic collaboration. Based on our findings, we argue that formal and informal institutional interactions are contingent and have context-dependent outcomes. In this context, specific acute disaster events serve as useful observation points to understand the changing nature of these interactions, overlapping risks, and the existing connections between risk rhetoric and actual risk governance. Finally, we argue that the interplay of all these unobserved factors can create new risks, which are harder to anticipate because the simplified image of the governance system and its evolution does not picture the path-dependent interplay between the contributing factors.</p>