Context:
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India recently recognized the right to be “free from the adverse impacts of climate change” in M.K. Ranjitsinh and Others vs Union of India, deriving it from the right to life and the right to equality. In a previous article on this page, “Court on climate right and how India can enforce it” (July 1, 2024), we argued that while this is a significant step in establishing climate jurisprudence in India, it raises the critical question of how this right will be protected.
Relevance:
GS3- Environmental Conservation
Mains Question:
Addressing climate change is about more than limiting emissions. Discuss in the context of tailoring a climate legislation suited to the Indian context. (10 Marks, 150 Words).
Tailoring Climate Legislation for the Indian Context:
Law to Inform Development Choices:
- Preparing India to mitigate the risks of climate change and address its impacts necessitates re-orienting development towards low-carbon and climate-resilient futures.
- Any law aimed at this must ensure these objectives are embedded in routine decision-making at all levels of development.
- Because climate change disproportionately affects the vulnerable, and an energy transition must be just, the law must prioritize advancing social justice.
- While the concept of climate law is often associated with a top-down approach of setting and achieving targets, this approach is limited in a developing country.
- Addressing climate change involves more than just limiting emissions; it requires a careful, ongoing consideration of each developmental choice and its long-term synergies and trade-offs with low-carbon and climate-resilient futures.
- To achieve this, the substantive right to protection against the adverse effects of climate change must be realized through well-defined legal procedures applicable across all levels of government.
- Climate action becomes more credible when a well-designed institutional structure is in place to strategize, prioritize, troubleshoot, and evaluate policies behind the scenes.
Framework Climate Laws:
- Many countries (67 according to one estimate) have experimented with ‘framework climate laws’ designed to build governance capacity to address climate change.
- These umbrella laws define government-wide goals and reinforce them with processes and accountability measures, making climate action a central government priority.
- However, these laws vary, and India’s approach must be tailored to its unique context. Starting from a low base of per capita emissions—less than half the global average—India’s emissions are still growing.
- The objective should be to maximize development benefits from each ton of carbon while avoiding high-carbon futures.
- Additionally, given India’s high vulnerability to climate impacts, building climate resilience must be a key element of the new law. Social equity considerations should also be central to meeting these objectives.
- Thus, India’s law must promote development in a low-carbon direction while enhancing resilience to pervasive climate impacts.
- This law should guide developmental choices, enabling thoughtful decision-making towards achieving a low-carbon, resilient society.
- For instance, as Indian cities grow and change rapidly, the law should help envision low-carbon, climate-resilient cities of the future and identify the levers to shape them.
- It should also guide city planning to minimize risks from floods and heatwaves, address transport needs through technology shifts like electric vehicle adoption, and emphasize public transport and lifestyle changes.
Establishing a Low-Carbon Development Body:
- A framework climate law should establish an institutional structure capable of developing viable solutions to climate-related questions.
- Our ongoing work at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative suggests creating a knowledge body within the government that can rigorously analyze policy options and their potential outcomes.
- We recommend an independent ‘low-carbon development commission’, staffed with experts and technical personnel, to provide practical solutions for achieving low-carbon growth and resilience to both national and state governments.
- This body could also serve as a platform for inclusive decision-making. Vulnerable communities and those adversely affected by technological changes need to be systematically consulted.
- Listening to their concerns and incorporating their ideas could lead to more sustainable policy outcomes.
- A comparable example is South Africa’s Presidential Climate Commission, which focuses on a just transition based on stakeholder inputs.
- Effective climate governance requires the ability to set directions, make strategic choices, and encourage the integration of low-carbon options and climate change considerations within line ministries.
- The law could establish a high-level strategic body, termed a ‘climate cabinet’, comprising key ministers and representatives from the Chief Ministers of States, tasked with driving climate strategy across the government.
- Globally, climate policy often fails due to fragmented decision-making; this approach aims to address that issue.
Implementing a Whole-of-Government Approach:
- A whole-of-government approach will require dedicated coordination mechanisms for effective implementation.
- While the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change should continue to play a central role, it needs to be supported by higher-level coordination.
- The pre-existing Executive Committee on Climate Change, composed of senior bureaucrats from multiple ministries, offers a useful template but needs to be reinvigorated with clearly defined legal powers and duties.
Engagement with the Federal Structure:
- The law must also consider India’s federal structure. Many areas crucial to reducing emissions and improving resilience—such as electricity, agriculture, water, health, and soil—fall under the jurisdiction of state and local governments. Climate impacts are first and most viscerally felt at the local level.
- To protect the Court’s newly established climate right, any institutional structure or regulatory instrument must meaningfully engage with subnational governments.
- First, the law should establish a channel for subnational governments to access national scientific capacity, potentially through the low-carbon development commission, addressing the issue of insufficient local climate scientific capacity.
- Second, it should articulate ways to finance local action, such as aligning centrally-sponsored schemes with climate goals or requiring national departments to tag expenditures towards local climate resilience.
- Third, the law should establish coordination mechanisms that facilitate consultation between the Centre and States on major climate decisions.
- It could also mandate periodic updates of medium-term climate plans built around unified goals, and encourage states to develop complementary institutions to those at the Centre, providing knowledge, strategy-setting, deliberation, and coordination functions.
- The proposed framework law, which facilitates and catalyzes action across national ministries and the federal structure, should not be the sole legal tool in the country’s regulatory toolkit.
- Complementary sectoral laws and amendments may also be necessary, but they should be informed by the approach outlined in the framework law.
Conclusion:
The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in M.K. Ranjitsinh opens the door to legal and governance changes that could establish a actionable right against the adverse effects of climate change. However, to fulfill this potential, this opportunity must be seized by enacting a climate law tailored to the Indian context. Such a law would guide Indian development choices towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient future while promoting justice.
