Climate Change Policy, Federalism and Developmental Process in India

Public Policy, Social Science, Environmental Policy

India is a federal polity which address issues of any nature through established federal mechanisms prescribed by the Constitution of India. Distribution of power between the Centre and states has been provided in the Constitution of India for the smooth running of the Government functions and policy. In order to legislate on environmental matters, the Indian parliament has relied upon two other constitutional provisions. These provisions are Article 253 and Article 51(c). Article 253 empowers parliament to make laws for implementing any treaty, agreement or convention with any other country/countries or for implementing any decision made at any international conference, association or other body. Article 51(c) mandates that the State shall endeavor to foster respect for international law and treaty obligations. There is a clear understanding in the context of Indian federalism that the entire discourse of federalism is heavily influenced by political considerations and policy necessities. The propose study broadly aims to assess climate change as an overarching policy issue in Indian federal system and how such an emerging issues are being debated and tackled in various institutional and policy frameworks in the country since 2008 with the unveiling of first ever the National Action Plan on Climate Change. The study further seeks to analyze the role of the constituent units of federalism, i.e., the States in India, in mitigating the challenges of climate change with the roles assigned under the constitutional framework and also within new policy parameters enacted by the Centre to centralize climate change governance in the country. Climate Change as a major public policy issue has moved to the top of world’s governance agenda. Due to its severity and wide implications, it is now assumed that the issue need be dealt with multipronged approach and mainstreaming in nation’s developmental agenda. The mitigation and adaptation strategies should be integrated in developmental frameworks at national, sub-national and local levels. Decentralization of authorities in planning, resources management, and implementation are considered as mainstay of policy strategies in tackling climate change. The practice of federalism in India provides the scope for such integration of climate concerns in national, sub-national and local levels. The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in its Eight (8) national missions has identified measures for the States which need to be implemented through their State Specific Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs) in order to promote India’s development objectives. The above backdrop draws conclusion that Climate Change as an overarching policy issue is going to define the contours of federalism in the country. While the concept of ‘environment’ is always remain as subsidiary power with the Centre and showed centralized tendency of governance, such centralization due to climate change has further challenged the federal governance of the country.

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