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India’s Domestic Climate Policy: Past, Present and Future Strategies

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DOI: 10.32381/ATNAGI.2021.41.01.10

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ANNALs, NAGI VOLUME 41 (NO. 1), JANUARY 2021, Page 166–185

INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY:

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
STRATEGIES

MANORANJAN GHOSH1 AND SOMNATH GHOSAL2

ABSTRACT
It has been proven that the development of any nation is correspondingly
related to increasing greenhouse gases and per capita energy demand and
uses. In India, approximately nineteen thousand eight hundred villages are
still without electricity, and at the same time, India is the world's third-
largest greenhouse gas emitter. Soon, greenhouse gas emissions and energy
demand will be more than double in India. Therefore, India needs an effective
and inclusive climate policy to handle high greenhouse gas emissions and
meet energy demand. In this article, looking into the past of the Indian
domestic climate policy, it has appeared that the country's climate policy is
changing over time, especially from 2009 onwards. After briefly examined
major achievements and shortfalls of India’s domestic climate policy,
especially, National Action Plan on Climate Change, it has cleared that not
all the national missions effectively successful. For example, the National
Mission on Sustainable Habitat only reframes some existing laws; there are
no particular plans for rural habitats in the context of climate change.
National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency and National Mission for
Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem achievements are negligible. Moreover,

1. Doctoral Fellow at Centre for Rural Development and Innovative Sustainable

Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur -721302,
West Bengal, India, E-mail [email protected]
2. Assistant Professor at Centre for Rural Development and Innovative
Sustainable Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur
-721302, West Bengal, India. E-mail- [email protected]
Received 13.01.2021 on Accepted on 2.04.2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/ATNAGI.2021.41.01.10
INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STRATEGIES 167

the state-wise performances on the implementation of eight national missions,

there are skewed distributions of financial allocation. However, all missions
are equally essential to mitigate the vulnerabilities of climate change.
However, there are many shortfalls and lacks in climate policy; nonetheless,
India is putting the climate change policy at the heart of development
strategies, particularly in energy security and economic development.
Keywords: Climate policy, Climate negations, Energy security, National
action plan on climate change.

INTRODUCTION
Any nation's development is correspondingly related to increasing
greenhouse gases and per capita energy uses (Narain et al., 2009; The World
Bank, 2010). The more energy signifies more greenhouse gas emissions; the
more greenhouse gas means more threat to the planet earth. It is because
greenhouse gases are the prime reason for anthropogenic climate change.
Therefore, the world development report on ‘Development and Climate
Change’ (2001) has rightly mentioned that climate change policy should
carefully focus on economic development and climate change mitigation
strategies. Focusing on India, still, 19766 villages are without electricity, and
at the same time, India is the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter
(NITI Aayog and IEEJ, 2017; Srinivasan, 2012; World Bank, Ecofys, and
Vivid Economics, 2017). It has also predicted that greenhouse gas emission
and energy demand will be more than double in India's near future (Thaker
and Leiserowitz, 2014). Therefore, India needs an effective and inclusive
climate policy to handle high greenhouse gas emissions and meet energy
demand (Rajamani, 2012; Thaker and Leiserowitz, 2014). Looking into the
past of the Indian domestic climate policy (Table: 1), it has cleared that the
country's climate policy is changing over time. This article's main objective is
to revisit India’s past climate policies and mark the sifting trend, which
helped mitigate the country’s climate threats. Secondly, briefly examine
India’s domestic climate policy along with major achievements and
shortfalls. Third, there is also a focus on possible future strategies. We have
critically pointed out the important event related to climate change policy,
which will help shape the future strategy of concerned areas. To analyze the
past and present of India’s domestic climate policy, various published and
unpublished academic and non-academic articles, public and private
institutional reports, archive information, and world prominent newspaper
interview have used as information and data sources. The article will be
filling the void of essential historical analysis of the domestic climate policy
of India.
The paper has organized as follows. The second section deals with the
climate change trend and related vulnerability in India because it is
168 ANNALS OF NAGI

essential to understand the vulnerability level to frame future policies. The

third section included the detailed chronology of Indian climate policies up to
2008. The fourth section of this article frames the details about the shifting
paradigm of Indian climate policy 2009 onwards, named ‘The beginning of
India’s active climate policy (2009 onward)’. Here, how India becomes a path
maker in global climate negotiation has been critically explained. The fifth
section explained creating national and state climate action plans, and their
prospect and shortcoming have been examined. Finally, the sixth section,
which deals with the relevant future strategy related to India’s climate policy
has been critically highlighted.

Table:1 Important Event Related to India's Climate Policy

Year Important events related to India's climate policy
1989 Ministry of Environment and Forest constitutesan expert committee on ‘Global
Climate Change’ (Sengupta, 2012).
1991 Publication of a significant report “Global Warming in Unequal World: A Case
of Environment Colonialism” by Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain, Centre for
Science and Environment, New Delhi (Sengupta, 2012; and Narain et al.,
2009)
1992 India signs the ‘United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change.’
(Sengupta, 2012; Mohan and Wehnert, 2018).
1997 Launching of ‘Indian Hydrocarbon Vision’(Sengupta, 2012).
2002 India ratifies the Kyoto protocol as well as hosted United Nations climate
conference (CoP-8) in New Delhi (Sengupta, 2012).
2006 India joins the Asia-Pacific partnership on ‘Clean Development and Climate.’
Formulation of ‘National Environment Policy’ and ‘Integrated Energy Policy’
(Sengupta, 2012).
2007 Set up of ‘Prime Minister Council on Climate Change’ by the scientific
experts.
2008 ‘National Action Plan on Climate Change’ framework was published with eight
national missions to solve climate change (Byrvan and Rajan, 2012).
2009 India's voluntary announcement reduced the CO2 emission by 30-35% of its
GDP intensity within 2025, considering 2005 as the base year. Formation of
‘Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment’ (INCCA) (Sharma and
Chauhan, 2011).
2010 The planning commission constitutes an expert committee on the low carbon
economy (Sengupta, 2012).
2015 India’s argument, ‘the climate justice’ word has been added in the UNFCCC
constitution (Mohan, 2017).
2016 121 Countries joined in International Solar Alliance (An Intergovernmental
Organisation) headed by India, launched in Paris climate meet. United
Nations as a collaborator institution (Mohan, 2017).
th
2018 16 International Energy Forum Ministerial Meet at New Delhi (PIB, 2021).
INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STRATEGIES 169

Climate change and related vulnerability in India

It would be quite important to understand the recent trend of climate
change and changing pattern of Monsoon in India, along with its related
vulnerability to frame the future climate policy. However, Indian climate has
been characterized by the monsoon climate system, and the nature of
monsoon climate over India is changing due to global climate change
(Srinivasan, 2012). For example, the country's land surface temperature is
increasing at 0.6°C during 1901-2010, where the temperature in the post
monsoon period has significantly increased at 0.79°C during the same period.
North East India (including the study region) and the west coast of the
country are the evidence of decreasing monsoon rainfall (Srinivasan, 2012).
Frequency of warm day over the mainland of India have increased at 4-5
days during 1981-2015 and the frequency Bay of Bengal cyclone has reduced
(Krishnan and Sanjay, 2017). Shrestha et al., (2012) have projected that
extremes high temperatures are increasing over the northern part of the
Brahmaputra basin. The Ganga river basin's glacial area will reduce 35-45%
to present area in 2050. Since 1850, each last three-decade has warmer than
the successive decade, the number of excessive cold days is decreasing (IPCC,
2001).
More specifically, India is considered one of the riskiest countries to
climate change, facing tremendous drought, flood, and agricultural threats
due to global climate changes (Lee, Villaruel, & Gaspar, 2016; The World
Bank, 2010). The disasters like floods and droughts are two prime reasons
for rural vulnerabilities in India; Table: 2 showing the time series plot of the
vulnerability in India, which reveals that over a short period, India has lost
many human life and resources due to climate extremes.
Moreover, in India, an increasing rural population with its parallel
demand for purified drinking water is threatening by various anthropogenic
causes and precipitation variability. The temperature and precipitation
variability is playing a vital role in the variation of surface and groundwater
(Chowdhury & Behera, 2018). Therefore, there are clear trends and evidence
of drinking water crisis in rural areas, such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, and
Decan plateau area and some parts of West Bengal experiencing water
scarcity to climate-induced drought climate variability. The entire Ganga
basin, the maximum part of the Himalaya, and the North-Eastern states of
India face the decreasing trend of groundwater, which has a severe impact
on agricultural activities and socio-economic vulnerability of people living in
this region.
Besides, India has been facing enormous chronic vulnerability in coastal
areas due to climate change-driven sea-level change (mean temperature
increasing). The recent assessment using Coastal-DEM has found that
more than 10% of people are vulnerable than the traditional estimation of 5
170 ANNALS OF NAGI

Table: 2 Major climatic catastrophic events and vulnerability in

India, 2011-2016
Year Event Explanation
2011 Floods A total of ninety people died, and 1,30,000 homes were
damaged/destroyed. Heavy losses incurred costing around
US $ 930 million in infrastructure, agriculture and livestock
sector.
2012 Floods, Four thousand and five hundred villages flooded. The losses
landslides to agriculture fisheries and livestock were around US $150
million. More than two million people were displaced and six
hundred people died.
2013 Heat Wave High temperatures of up to 46°C for several weeks all over
the country, and five hundred fifty-seven people died.
Floods, Flash Heavy losses of around US $1500 million in property
Floods including businesses, schools, health centres, hydroelectric
power stations, infrastructure, agriculture, and fishery.
Almost six thousand people died.
2014 Cyclone More than eighty thousand houses, commercial buildings
Hudhud, Storm damaged. A large number of rice croplands and more than
Surge forty thousand electrical poles were destroyed. The amount
of losses incurred was around US $7000 million.
2015 Drought More than seventy percent deficiency in rainfall. Thirty-
seven thousand sq. km of croplands damaged and thirty
percent of crops were lost. Six million farmers were affected
and the amount of losses incurred was around US $500
million.
Floods, Due to the heavy seasonal rains and flash floods, more than
Landslides thirteen thousand villages were flooded and one million
houses were damaged. One hundred twenty five people
died. The amount of losses was around US $1500 million.
Floods More than eighty thousand houses were destroyed,
including eight airports, due to torrential rainfall. Factories
were temporarily shut down. Almost two million people were
displaced and a hundred people died. The amount of losses
incurred was around US $ 3500 million.
2016 Floods Due to the heavy rain, more than twenty thousand houses
destroyed and five thousand km of road damaged.
Thousands of sq.km of crops were damaged. The amount of
losses incurred was around US $160 million.
Floods Two million people lost their homes in the state of Bihar
alone, and three hundred people died.
Cyclone Homes, factories, vehicles, ships were damaged due to high
Vardah wind flow and heavy rains. Millions of customers were
without power, and millions of rice-crop lands were
destroyed. The amount of losses incurred was around US
$1000 million.
Source: TOPICS GEO, Global Risk Research, 2011-16 subsequent Reports.
INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STRATEGIES 171

million people (Kulp and Strauss, 2019). The coastal cyclone in India's
eastern coast and flood on both sides Indian coasts are the severe threat to
the poor people in this region in the context of climate change (Sankari, et
al., 2015). As India has a long 7000 km coastal line with a high population
density, thirty-six million people will be pushed for displacement in West
Bengal and coastal Odisha (Rawat, et al., 2016). The sea-level rise and
population displacement and resettlement will be the severe conflict and
challenge for governance. Besides, the climate change-driven coastal
disturbance has also impacted the coastal tourism, fisheries, and port
infrastructure, which has impacted the regional economy and related
livelihoods of the people.
The Asian countries are the most vulnerable due to climate change-
driven sea-level rise; 70% of global coastal vulnerable people live in eight
Asian countries3. At the same time, population growth rate is also very high
in these countries. Therefore future population exposure to sea-level rise and
coastal flooding estimate that more than double people will be threatening by
climate change-driven sea-level; India will be the fourth largest victimized
country (Neumann, et al., 2015). Table: 3 shows the share of projected

Table: 3 Share of area, population in low-elevation coastal zones and

flood plains in selected countries of Asia, 2000 and 2060
Country LECZ area as LECZ Projected Projected
a share of population population in population
total country as a share of low-elevation in 1-in-100-
area 2000 total country coastal zones year flood
(%) population 2000 2060 plains 2060
(%) (million) (million)
Bangladesh 40.2 48.7 109.5 12.4
Cambodia 7.5 25.7 6.0 1.4
PRC 2.0 11.3 244.8 103.4
India 2.6 6.1 216.4 63.6
Indonesia 9.1 18.4 93.7 14.5
Myanmar 7.3 27.8 22.8 6.3
Pakistan 2.9 3.2 30.1 5.7
Philippines 6.8 16.7 34.9 5.8
Thailand 6.8 26.0 36.8 9.1
Vietnam 20.2 54.7 80.4 50.6
LECZ = low-elevation coastal zone, PRC = People’s Republic of China.
Source: Neumann et al., (2015).

3. The eight countries included China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia,

Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan.
172 ANNALS OF NAGI

population in Low-Elevation Coastal Zones and Flood Plains in Selected

Countries of Asia in 2060, which indicates the growing level of people
vulnerability.

India’s Climate Policy at the Preliminary stage (upto 2008)

From the beginning of global climate change negotiations, India claims
that a country's per capita carbon emission should be the global climate
change responsibility, popularly known as ‘Common but Differentiated
Responsibility.’ India plays a significant role in per capita emission global
climate policy in negotiation throughout the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) parties. The major arguments
behind this negotiation were India has a minimal contribution to global
cumulative greenhouse gas emissions or historical emissions (Rocha et al.,
2015). The developed countries (as per as UNFCCC) are historically
responsible for anthropogenic climate change4. Therefore, they should take
adequate responsibility to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change. The
per capita emissions in the developed countries are much higher than the
developing and underdeveloped countries (World Bank, 2018). Therefore, per
capita greenhouse gas emission should measure the climate change
responsibility at the global platform. The per capita carbon emission has
been the strong global climate policy strategy of India at the preliminary
stage. One of India’s major arguments in the global climate negotiations
platform is that to increase the standard of living, reduce extreme mass
poverty, and build the infrastructures against climate change vulnerabilities,
substantial economic growth is essential. Following these numerous climate
change characters, India stands on ‘low level of responsibility as indicated by
low per capita and historical emissions’ at the global climate negotiations in
the preliminary stage (Dubash and Joseph, 2016; Saran and Jones, 2017).
From the above discussion, it is clear that in the preliminary stage of India’s
climate policy, the ‘emerging nation’ identity, along with its rural and
industrial energy demand, had been shaping the climate policies. Apart from
global negotiation, at the domestic level, Dubash and Joseph (2016) have
pointed out some important features about the initial stage of India’s climate
policy. It has taken merely as diplomatic problem related to foreign policies
taken care by Ministry of External Affairs and Department of Science and
Technology as a scientific advisor. However, Barua, (2017) mentioned that
Indian climate policy still adjusted or linked with its foreign policies. If we

4. It is because of the industrialisation has started much earlier in the developed

countries and that industrial emissions are the main reason of present
anthropogenic climate change on the earth.
INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STRATEGIES 173

look at the level of engagement of the Indian parliament with India’s

climate policy at the initial state. It has been found that the engagement
of the Indian parliament was very low, although India is the world's
largest democracy. It is also noticeable that there was little formal
institutionalization regarding India’s climate policies at this stage. In India,
climate change policy has never been considered a serious development issue
except to a few committees (Table:1). However, India’s climate policy is
changing its path due to various reasons. For example, there is ergent need
to mitigate climate change vulnerability, set up new green infrastructure,
increase the people adaptation capacity, etc. The next section of this article
deals with the new activism on climate policy 2009 onward.

The Beginning of India’s Active Climate Policy (2009 onward)

India is now playing the ‘deal maker’ role in the global climate
negotiation and firm representative among the developing countries
(Rastogi, 2011). It is because of the shifting of India’s traditional
multilateralism approach5 to the global climate change crisis. India had been
standing with per capita emission and historical responsibility principles of
climate negotiation. However, in 2009, India voluntarily announced reducing
the CO2 emission up to 30-35% of its GDP intensity within the year 2025,
considering 2005 as the base year, which has opened the new dimension of
India’s climate policy. This new climate policy created more vigorous
democratic debate in Indian news media and civil society, although the new
climate policy initiative was appreciated by global stakeholders6 and
UNFCCC (Barua, 2017; Dubash, Raghunandan, and Sant, 2013). This
dynamic policy change was possible due to the active role of the Ministry of
Environment, Forest, and Climate Change under the leadership of Jairam
Ramesh7. He put the issue of climate change at the heart of Indian
development and democratic public debate. However, there was much
international pressure to change India’s domestic climate policies (Dubash
and Joseph, 2016). In the year 2009, the four-hour debate in the lower house
(Lok Sabha) of the Indian parliament about India’s future role in global
climate negotiation and climate leadership; climate concern became a
political issue in India (Barua, 2017; Rastogi, 2011).

5. The multilateralism approach based on the popular Panchasheel Niti , that is

focused on equality with mutual respect and peace full co-existence.
6. Global stakeholder means others developed and developing countries, and
global policy making institution.
7. One India’s distinguished environmental historian Ramachandra Guha called
Jairam Ramesh is the "true environment minister". In mid-2009, J. Ramesh
was appointed as forest, environment, and climate change minister.
174 ANNALS OF NAGI

Apart from the new activism in the Indian parliament, in the year 2009,
for scientific knowledge and the impact of climate changes within the
country, the Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment8 (INCCA) has
formed. The main objectives of INCCA was to study science, impacts,
vulnerability, mitigation and adaptation aspects of climate change in the
country (Sharma and Chauhan, 2011). The INCCA has made a common
platform of one hundred twenty academic and research institutions and over
220 scientists from different disciplines to discuss the science, impacts,
vulnerability, mitigation and adaptation’ dimensions of climate change. In
November 2010, INCCA published a comprehensive report namely ‘Climate
Change and India: A 4x4 Assessment - A Sectorial and Regional Analysis for
2030s’ focused on four major vulnerable sectors such as water, agricultural,
human health, and forest, and four major vulnerable regions, such as the
Himalayan Region, Western Ghats, North-Eastern Region, and Coastal
Region. In continuation of the new active wave in Indian climate policies,
‘Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change of India’ has been formed. The
council published the national and state climate action plan within a few
years. Michaelowa and Michaelowa, (2012) have mentioned that during the
years 2007 to 2011, Indian’s international and domestic climate policy move
from rigid defensive strategies to mixed dynamic strategies. The national
and state action plan on climate change shaping the domestic emission
scenario has been discussed in detail in the next section.

India’s Present Domestic Climate Policy: National and State Climate

Action Plan and Its Prospects and Shortfalls
Barua (2017) has rightly mentioned that both the global and domestics
climate policy can only solve a nation's climate change vulnerabilities or
problems. As we mentioned about India’s climate policies, Table 1 shows the
major steps in clear-cut chronology related to climate policies. India’s present
domestic climate has been more interlining with the Prime Minister's
Council on Climate Change. Within a year from the formation, the Prime
Minister's Council on Climate Change of India has come up with the
National Action Plan for Climate Change9 (NAPCC) in 2008. While the
NAPCC has setup on the principle of the UN framework convention on
climate change. The main aims of NAPCC are to make an effective and
cooperative climate agenda to fulfill the global and domestic challenges. The
NAPCC has rightly mentioned protecting the poor and vulnerable sections of

8. Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) is also knows as

Indian IPCC.
9. The NAPCC has been guiding by the following principles which is related with
the three broad domain of sustainable development such as economic growth,
social justice and environment sustainability.
INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STRATEGIES 175

society through an inclusive and sustainable development strategy and the

region that are sensitive to climate change. The NAPCC has come out with
eight national mission to trickle the possible negative impact of climate
changes; which are (1) National Solar Mission (2) National Mission on
Sustainable Habitat (3) National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (4)
National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (5) National
Water Mission (6) National Mission for a Green India (7) National Mission
for Sustainable Agriculture (8) National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for
Climate Change. If we look carefully, the first three missions deal with the
mitigation strategy of climate change and the last five, except National
Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change, deal with adaptation
strategy of climate change. However, the National Mission on Strategic
Knowledge for Climate Change deals with international relations and
developing knowledge partnerships with other countries, research institute,
and global agencies. After the NAPCC, the state-level climate change action
plan of India has been initiated. There is a need for a complete climate
change-related assessment report for the states' development plan's effective
policymaking and framing. Hence, after the fulfill the NAPCC, major focused
on preparing state-level climate change action plans10. All the national
missions had key objectives, but the missions achieved so far have been
tabulated below (table: 4). The mission achievements have rightly
contributed to mitigating India's climate vulnerabilities and helping India
design its global climate policy (Dubash, 2019).

The NAPCC and the state-level climate action plan have been rigorously
criticised. Table: 4 shows that the national mission concentrated on a
relatively chosen field rather than a wide variety. National Mission for
Enhanced Energy Efficiency and National Mission for Sustaining the
Himalayan Ecosystem achievements are negligible. Byrvan and Rajan (2012)
rightly mentioned that it was made undemocratically and a little discussion
with the expert community; it is repackaging of existing and programs.
Careful looking at the published NAPCC report, it can be stated that it is
just an overview, not considering the severe problems of climate
vulnerabilities and no solutions for small and marginal farmers and other
vulnerable communities. There is a lack of coordination between the
institution and ministerial level to implementing the eight national mission
in a whole stick way; also the lack of formal coordination mechanism in
climate change finance management (Dubash and Joseph, 2016; Jha, 2014).
There are skewed distributions of financial allocation in terms of state-wise
performances on the implementation of eight national missions. However, all

10. One of the main principles for preparation of state climate change action plan
was to emphasis on agro-climatic zone and district wise identification of
vulnerable sectors and groups.
176 ANNALS OF NAGI

Table 4: National Mission under NAPCC and Its Key Goals and
Achievements
National Mission Key goals Achievements
National Solar To developed 100GW solar Increased the country's solar
Mission power and 20 Million solar finance, Allocate money for 62
lighting system in rural India by solar cities across the country
2022. (Table:4). Achieved 20 million
sq. meters’ solar thermal
collector area. To busting solar
energy, India has double the
coal tax from _50 to _100 per ton
(NITI Aayog and IEEJ, 2017)
National Mission To develop the energy Only reframe some existing laws
on Sustainable efficiency and recycling of and framed transport and
Habitat construction waste, compulsory energy-efficient building plan
rainwater harvesting, housing (Centre for Development
for all. Finance, 2014).
National Mission To achieve efficient energy use From 2012 to 2015, the missions
for Enhanced and meet the demand of the achieve 5635-megawatt energy
Energy Efficiency country, reduced greenhouse saving, which reduced 31 million
gas emission. tonnes of CO 2 emission (Data
accessed from Ministry of
Science and Technology,
Government of India;
website:https://dst.gov.in/).
National Mission To develop knowledge Established seven climate
for Sustaining the institutions for the Himalayan change studies centreonly in the
Himalayan ecosystem, which hold the Himalayan states (Ministry of
Ecosystem institutional capacity for studies Forest, Environment And
on the Himalayan ecosystem, Climate Change
climate, and people livelihoods. Website,http://moef.gov.in/).
National Water To conserve water resources, Created 1,082 new Ground
Mission reduce water waste, and Water Monitoring Wells.702 new
ensure pure drinking water Hydrological Observation
facilities, integrated river basin Station, 275 real-time flood
management isa prime goal. forecasting stations, and only
1,237 water bodies have
restored out of 10000 targets till
2017 (Centre for Development
Finance, 2014).
National Mission To improve forest cover, forest- Little increased of forest cover of
for a Green India based livelihoods, plantation of the country. New policy initiative
trees on barren land, like Nagar Vana Udyan Yojana
wasteland, cold desert, and has taken for urban forestry
mangrove areas. creates 25 hectares of urban
forests (Ministry of Forest,
INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STRATEGIES 177

Environment And Climate

Change
Website,http://moef.gov.in/).
National Mission To develop the climate Developed 11,000 hectares of
for Sustainable resilience agricultural practice, degraded land created 5.4
Agriculture such as efficient on-farm water million metric tones of
uses, monitoring soil health, agricultural storage capacity
area-based land development, (Centre for Development
dissemination of climate Finance, 2014).
information to the farmers,
ensure food security.
National Mission To develop a knowledge To integrate six major sectors,
on Strategic platform and network with such as agriculture, water,
Knowledge for different research institutions, sustainable habitat, manufac-
Climate Change countries, private agencies for turing, energy efficiency, and
generation and share of climate forestry. The Global Technology
change information. Watch Group (GTWG) has been
created by the Department of
Science and Technology’s
Technology Information Fore-
casting and Assessment Council
(TIFAC). The centres for
Excellence in climate change
studies have been launched at
IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay
(Ministry of Forest, Environment
and Climate Change
Website,http://moef.gov.in/).
Source: Data collected from Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change,
Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation,
Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Housing
and Urban Affairs, and Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, website and
annual report. Different reports of Department of Science and Technology,
Govt. of India

missions are equally essential to mitigate the vulnerabilities of climate

change. For example, in Gujarat, only a 0.4% budget is allocated to coastal
development even though six million people live in the coastal area and a 2%
budget has been allocated for agricultural development.
In contrast, half of the state workforce is agricultural dependent
(Rattani, 2018). Chettri (2017) has also shown through her ethnographic
research that the state of West Bengal State Climate Action Plan has made
by West Bengal's government without any consultation of local people who
are more vulnerable due to climate change. There is no strategic advice
section in the state action plan from the government side. There is no specific
budget allocation on Himalayan biodiversity or ecosystem management in
178 ANNALS OF NAGI

the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. In Uttar Pradesh, whereas most of

them are agricultural dependent, only 0.2% budget is allocating to
agricultural development (Table: 5).

Table: 5 Percentage share of total budget expenditure under NAPCC

Selected Agri- Water Forests Health Energy Sea-level Hima- Others
state culture and efficiency rise and layan
biodi- and coastal eco-
versity renewable infra- system
energy structure
Gujarat 2.0 79.0 1.0 1.0 3.0 0.48 - 13.52
Madhya 37.0 14.0 19.0 9.0 8.0 - - 13.00
Pradesh
Odisha 9.0 4.0 27.0 3.0 38.0 8.0 - 11.00
Mizoram 11.0 13.0 8.0 8.0 20.0 - 4.0 36.00
Tamilnadu 6.0 3.0 0.39 - 38.0 1.0 - 51.61
Uttrakhand 0.9 1.0 11.0 1.0 2.0 - - 84.10
Uttar 0.2 52.0 18.0 - 1.0 - - 28.80
Pradesh
Panjab 15.0 18.0 5.0 - 5.0 - 0.3 56.70
Source: based on Centre for Science and Environment’s reports, New Delhi, 2018.

Possible Future Strategies Related to India's Climate Policy

India's initial climate policies had been criticizing by different scholars.
Bidwai (2009) mentioned that India’s climate policy is particularly limited in
focusing merely on per capita emissions norms. Barua (2017) argues that
India’s climate policy would be dangerous for the earth if India continues to
claim on equality principle of climate negotiations. If India’s 1.3 billion
populations start producing an equal amount of greenhouse gas as the
western countries population are producing, then the earth atmosphere will
be unhabitable for the human. There is an increasing trend of per capita CO2
emissions and high demand for energy (Narain et al., 2009). It has been
estimated that the total population and percentage share of India's urban
population will be 51%, and the manufacturing sector's share in the economy
will be 34% (which was 16% in 2012) in 2047. (NITI Aayog and IEEJ, 2017).
Hence, there will be a high energy demand. Therefore, the high greenhouse
gas emissions from different industries, urban and rural household demand,
and increasing renewable energy use in every sector would be the prime
agenda. It is clear from the figure:1 that India's total carbon emission and
per capita carbon emission will be increased over the years.
INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STRATEGIES 179

1250 3.5

Emission CO2e/person/year
1050 3
GDP INR Trilion

850 2.5

650 2

450 1.5

250 1

50 0.5
2017 2022 2027 2032 2037 2042 2047
Figure: 1 Future Prediction of Percapita Emission and GDP Growth in India

Apart from the domestic energy demand, there is an urgent need to find
a suitable climate policy that is globally acceptable. Sometimes, India needs
a sophisticated climate policy to negotiate world politics and foreign relations
(Barua, 2017; Rajamani, 2012; Thaker and Leiserowitz, 2014). India has
been participating in the entire climate change global summit and
contributing to framing the global climate policies11. For many reasons, one
of the important driving causes is that Indian climate policy is directly linked
to India’s claim to the permanent position in the United Nations Security
Council (Rastogi, 2011). This section will focus on India’s possible future
strategies related to global and domestic climate policies. Some important
issues that can mitigate India’s greenhouse gas emissions, solve the
increasing energy demands, and future strategy to become a ‘deal maker’ in
global climate change negotiations.
First, it has been found that eradicating extreme poverty is possible
(US$1.9 PPP per day) without compromise with greenhouse gas emission. In
India, the socio-economic challenges are huge: poverty, hunger, illiteracy,
inequality, and displacement. For example, 30.9 % of the rural population
lives below the poverty level (Planning Commission, 2009), and many rural
women are illiterate (41.2 %). Apart from that, many people have low
resource rights and assert ownership, which makes them more vulnerable to
climate changes (Yadav and Lal, 2018). Therefore, to build resilience for

11. India participated in the 1972 Stockholm Conference, the then prime minister
Indria Gandhi made the influential speech to shape the global environment
policies, then in 1992, Rio Conference, India’s remarkable influence was
“Global Warming in Unequal World: An Environmental Colonialism” which is a
paradigm shift in the global climate change policy thinking.
180 ANNALS OF NAGI

these sections of people, India’s domestic climate policies should lower

economic and social inequality.
Second, due to high domestic demand, India imported a gigantic amount
of oil and natural gas from other countries (Ministry of Petroleum and

Table 6: Distribution of Proposed Solar Cities in India

States/UTs Sanctioned Solar Cities Fund
release (Rs.
in Crore)
Andhra Pradesh Vijayawada, Kakinada, Narsapur Town 1.65
Assam Guwahati, Jorhat 0.25
Arunachal Pradesh Itanagar 0.16
Bihar Gaya 0.00
Chandigarh Chandigarh 8.82
Chhattisgarh Bilaspur, Raipur 0.24
Delhi New Delhi (NDMC area) 0.00
Goa Panaji City 0.02
Gujarat Rajkot, Gandhinagar, Surat 0.61
Haryana Gurgaon, Faridabad 0.35
Himachal Pradesh Shimla, Hamirpur 1.79
Jammu and Kashmir Leh 0.00
Karnataka Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad 0.87
Kerala Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi 0.19
Madhya Pradesh Indore, Gwalior, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Rewa 0.43
Maharashtra Nagpur, Thane, Kalyan- 3.66
Dombivli, Aurangabad, Nanded, Pune, Shirdi
Manipur Imphal 0.04
Mizoram Aizawl 2.53
Nagaland Kohima, Dimapur 0.24
Odisha Bhubaneswar 0.04
Puducherry Puducherry 0.31
Punjab Amritsar, Ludhiana, SAS Nagar (Mohali) 0.26
Rajasthan Ajmer, Jaipur, Jodhpur 0.03
Tamil Nadu Coimbatore 0.66
Telangana Mahbubnagar 0.00
Tripura Agartala 1.37
Uttarakhand Dehradun, Haridwar & Rishikesh, Chamoli 0.32
Gopeshwar
Uttar Pradesh Agra, Moradabad, Allahabad 0.66
West Bengal Howrah, Madhyamgram, New Town Kolkata 0.42
Source: Energizing India:Joint Project Report of NITI Aayog and IEEJ, 2017
INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STRATEGIES 181

Natural Gas, 2017; Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, 2018). Whereas,
these imported fossil fuels are the primary source of greenhouse gas
emissions. Therefore, shifting to renewable energy sources, such as solar
power would be the best option. It has been estimated that India’s solar
energy possibility is more than 10,000 Giga Watts (NITI Aayog, 2015). India
needs to invest more in the solar energy sector to reduce fossil fuel emissions.
Table:6 shows the possible proposed solar cities in India. Considering the
solar city development strategy, recent prediction shows that the renewable
energy sector can generate three Lakh new green jobs in India (Kwatra,
2017). The country has many young populations and generates employment
for this young workforce is one of the prime challenges. Therefore, moving to
renewable energy sources can create more green jobs.
Third, India's natural resource extraction level is high, and these
natural resource extractions are directly linked with India’s climate policy
(Adve, 2010; Bidwai, 2009). The global research found that natural
vegetation and soils absorb near about 40% of global anthropogenic CO2
emissions (The Royal Society, 2001) and play a significant role in mitigating
climate change (Hendrick and Black, 2007). Noticeably, India has less than
33% of forest cover to its total geographical area. Considering upcoming
climate change vulnerabilities, India needs to increase and protect its
natural vegetation covers. As we mentioned in Table: 3, green India's
national mission achieves little compared to its expectation. Therefore, there
is a need to redesign the national and state policy regarding the increase of
natural vegetation.

CONCLUSION
There are disagreements among scholars regarding Indian climate policy
and per capita greenhouse gas (1.02 metric tons per year, which is much
below from world average) emission dilemma. The multiple stakeholders at
various levels in multiple sectors have engaged with the climate policy
framing. Those influence the domestic as well as global climate policy of the
country. In continuation of greenhouse gas emission and policy change,
Kanitkar et al., (2009) raise the question of whether India needs to cut its
emission level? India is aware of its emission cut along with its economic
growth. A comprehensive and viable strategy has been taking over a long
time to secure Indian economic growth, energy demand and mitigate climate
change (NITI Aayog, 2015a). Presently, India is aware of its energy demand
considering its booming entrepreneurial economy and global leadership
aspiration. India has developed its own energy and emission scenario based
on energy demand and supply using the India Energy Security Scenarios,
182 ANNALS OF NAGI

2047 (IESS, 2047)12, a robust energy scenario building tool that will help,
domestic climate change policy framing. India is putting the climate change
policy at the heart of development strategies, particularly in energy security
and economic development.

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 INDIA’S DOMESTIC CLIMATE POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE STRATEGIES 185

Annexure 1: Total number of village electrified in India up to 2015

Year Village Electrified
1956 (End of the 1st Plan) 7,294
1961 (End of the 2nd Plan) 21,754
1966 (End of the 3rd Plan) 45,148
1974 (End of the 4th Plan) 156,729
1979 (End of the 5th Plan) 232,770
1985 (End of the 6th Plan 370,332
1990 (End of the 7th Plan) 470,838
1997 (End of the 8th Plan) 498,836
2002 (End of the 9th Plan) 512,153
2007 (End of the 10th Plan) 482,864
2012 (End of the 11th Plan) 556,633
2015 (End of the year) 577698
Total number of village 597464
Source: Energizing India: Joint Project Report of NITI Aayog and IEEJ, 2017

Annexure 2: Future emission scenario of India up to 2047

Per capita emission Mt
Total emission Mt CO2 E/Year
CO2 E/Person/Year
Hydro- Hydro-
Year carbon carbon
Trans- Agri- Fossil Indus- Trans-
power Industry power
port cultural fuel try port
genera- genera-
tion tion
2017 1211.2 559.2 300 28 39 0.9 0.5 0.2
2027 1889.9 1088.3 522.3 53 67 1.3 0.7 0.4
2037 2351.8 1611.3 748.1 57 91 1.5 1 0.5
2047 2521.2 1924.7 884.8 55 123 1.5 1.1 0.5
Source: IESS Team Pathway, 2047

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