Bridge the gap between rhetoric and action

Weakened environmental laws and inadequate action compound pollution and water scarcity challenges

As one of the most populous countries and a fast-growing economy, India’s actions on the climate change front are considered critical in preventing a plunge into a perilous temperature threshold. The majority of Indians view climate change as a potential threat, according to global surveys, including Gallup’s data and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll. Approximately three in five Indians (62 per cent) perceive climate change as a threat to their country in the next 20 years, with 37 per cent considering it a pressing concern, according to data from the 2019 and 2021 Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll. 

However, a recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report painted a bleak picture for the world’s most populous country, which faces numerous threats from a changing climate that is already reshaping India in profound ways. This issue seems to stem from the fact that developing economies, like India, which are more vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, demand that the industrially advanced countries, historically responsible for a higher share of global emissions, shoulder more responsibility and support them in their climate change-related transition. Despite the relevance of such nuanced arguments, India, as an emerging economic powerhouse with internal contradictions of economic inequality, plays a pivotal role in moderating global climate trends for its own sake due to the transformative impact that climate change is already having on India, particularly affecting the poor.

Recognising the climate concerns of most citizens, the election manifestos of India’s leading political parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress Party, have consistently included environmental issues alongside other promises. Both parties acknowledge that climate issues are significant concerns for the younger generation, a substantial proportion of Indian voters.

Issues such as clean air, water, waste management, and clean energy were included in party manifestos for the first time in 2019 and feature prominently in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP’s manifesto is essentially an extension of the previous schemes in the environment, forests, water, transitioning to renewable energy, and ensuring tribal welfare and rights. The BJP pledges to implement the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to maintain designated annual average ambient air quality standards in 60 cities by 2029 and improve the health and cleanliness of India’s major rivers.

Similarly, the Congress Party also expresses its wish to improve the country’s air quality, which is one of the worst globally, and proposes to constitute an independent Environment Protection and Climate Change Authority to establish, monitor, and enforce environmental standards at the national and state levels.

Rather than the Congress, which held power for two constitutive terms, the BJP should be held accountable for its performance on the climate change front. The fundamental question is whether the environmental promises are supported by government action. However, in the past decade, the Indian government has passed contentious environment laws such as the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Biodiversity (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which are criticised for diluting people’s rights and weakening environmental protection, thus exacerbating climate change.

In an unprecedented move, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) approved a megaproject at the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, jeopardising tropical rainforests, coral reefs, and tribal rights. Newly released data from the Election Commission of India (ECI) shows big players in India’s infrastructure development sector —from 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 miserable performance in improving even the air quality of Delhi epitomises the grand failure of the government to stop the rot at a fundamental level.

The Congress promises to make amends to 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.

One major concern is whether the rhetoric is followed up by real action. The performance of the current government leaves much to be desired. It has 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 Himalayan mountains is one such example, which goes against existing norms and warnings given by activists and scientists. In the previous manifesto, the BJP 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 such as Bengaluru, with its unprecedented water depletion, tell us what is in store for us in the years to come. This emerging situation highlights the need to replenish the underground water sources and the importance of cleaning up the rivers. In 2022, the Central Pollution Control Board identified 311 polluted stretches on 279 rivers in 30 states. This is despite the promise of cleaning up rivers in the 2019 election manifesto. No wonder India received the lowest ranking (180) in the Environment Performance Index in 2022, developed by Yale University and Columbia
University in collaboration with
the World Economic Forum and European Commission.

In various international meetings on climate, India has committed to long-term emission reduction strategies and a 2070 deadline for achieving net zero. Are we on track to fulfil those commitments? Although the ruling party has made some progress on renewable energy, especially solar power, no headway has been made in reducing India’s dependence on petroleum and coal-based fuels. Our dependence on these resources has gone up. Equally, the citizens are kept in the dark about the adaptation and resilience strategies—another promise yet to be addressed in real terms.

(The writer is an adjunct professor at the National Institute of Advanced
Studies, Bengaluru)