India’s climate change actions are critical in arresting a freefall into a dangerous temperature threshold. This assumes significance as India is now the most populous countries and a fast-growing economy.
The majority of Indians identify climate change as a potential threat, according to global surveys. Gallup’s data and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll’s data show that roughly three in five Indians (62%) perceive climate change as a threat to their country in the next 20 years – with 37% seeing it as a pressing concern.
Possibly realising these concerns, the election manifestos of the leading parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress – have addressed environmental issues, among other promises. The parties also realise that the climate issue is an important concern among the younger generation, who form a large proportion of the Indian voters now, although climate and environment do not feature openly in electioneering.
Issues like clean air, water, waste management, and clean energy have been mentioned in party manifestos. The BJP’s manifesto is essentially an extension of the previous schemes in the environment, forests, water, renewable energy transition and tribal welfare and rights.
What we need to ask is whether the promises made on safeguarding the environment are backed up by action from the government’s side. The Indian government in the last decade has passed contentious environmental laws like the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Biodiversity (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which weakened environmental protection. Through the newly initiated Green Credits programme, the government is now making it easier for companies to use it as an excuse for the forest diversion requirements for mining activities and industrial expansion, etc. in exchange for their credits for compensatory afforestation – which can never compensate for the complex biodiversity of a natural forest.
In unprecedented haste, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) approved a megaproject at the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which will destroy a huge tract of the tropical rainforest and destroy large parts of coral reef and impact the rights of the tribal people.
Newly released data from the Election Commission of India (ECI) shows big players in India’s infrastructure development industry – from the energy to natural resource extraction businesses – who have a history of violating environmental laws – paid millions in anonymous donations to political parties, of which the BJP emerged as the biggest beneficiary.
The BJP has repeated its promise to implement the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to maintain the designated annual average ambient air quality standards in 60 cities by 2029. It has also reiterated its promise of improving the health and cleanliness of major rivers of India.
The Congress party has also expressed its wish to improve the country’s air quality, which is one of the worst globally. It plans to constitute a regulatory body – an independent Environment Protection and Climate Change Authority – to monitor and enforce environmental standards at the national and state levels.
Delhi’s deteriorating air quality shows the government has failed to stop the rot at a fundamental level. It is reported that most of the coal power plants are not fitted with clean-up systems that would filter out air pollutants. A research conducted at IIT-Hyderabad shows that “as many as 720,000 early deaths could have been avoided over a 10-year-period if the power plants were cleaned up.”
Although the government has launched the National Clean Air Programme and identified polluting sources such as vehicular emission, road dust, biomass/garbage burning, and construction activities, the coal power plants as the key source have been ignored.
The Congress promises to make amends on many laws that the BJP passed, including those related to the environment and forests like the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2023 (FCAA), which the Supreme Court stayed through an interim order.
The FCAA provides legality that helps the diversion of forest land for mining and roadways. The party also hopes to set up the Green Transition Fund of India and take the 2008 National Action Plan on Climate Change to the National Climate Resilient Development Mission.
The current government’s performance leaves much to be desired. It has often diluted or changed the existing environmental laws to pave the way for various so-called “infrastructural” projects. The clearance for the Char Dham road widening project in the Uttarakhand mountains to promote “spiritual” tourism, which violates environmental norms, is one such example.
Once an agriculture-based economy, India has shifted to unregulated tourism, converting the agricultural and forested lands for hotels and restaurants, unremittingly happening from Ladakh to the Uttarakhand Himalayas. In the previous manifesto, the ruling party had promised a green bonus for the Himalayan region to facilitate the promotion of forests in those states. The government has done nothing to facilitate this promise.
India is in the grip of a water crisis and cities like Bengaluru with its unprecedented water depletion tell us what is in store for us in the years to come. This emerging situation underscores the need to replenish the underground water sources and the importance of cleaning up the rivers on a war footing.
In 2022, the Central Pollution Control Board identified 311 polluted stretches on 279 rivers in 30 states. This, despite the promise of cleaning up the Indian rivers in the election manifesto released in 2019, before the polls. It is worth asking, after spending Rs 33,000 crore since 2014, the Indian government is anywhere near cleaning up the Ganga, except in some patches. The deployed sewage treatment plants are reportedly under-equipped to deal with high concentrations of pollutants.
Unsurprisingly, India received the lowest ranking (180) in the Environment Performance Index in 2022. The ranking was developed by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and European Commission.
A recent report published by Swiss-based EA Earth Action reveals that India emerged as one of the top 12 countries responsible for 60% of mismanaged plastic waste.
In various international meetings on climate, India has been harping on its long-term emission development strategy and declared its commitment to a 2070 deadline to achieve net zero. Are we on track to fulfil those commitments?
Although India has made some progress on renewable energy, especially solar power, it has not made any headway in reducing our dependence on petroleum and coal-based fuels until now. Our dependence on these resources has gone up. Six hundred coal power plants generate more than 70% of India’s electricity. Equally, the citizens are kept in the dark about the adaptation and resilience strategies – another promise yet to be addressed in real terms.
In this context, it is worth mentioning that the Supreme Court in its March 21 judgement has recognised the right to be free from the impact of climate change. To avert an environmental crisis, we need tangible action, and not greenwashing, as reflected in the party manifesto.
C.P. Rajendran is an Adjunct Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru and the director of the Consortium for Sustainable Development, Connecticut, US.
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