The Right Time For India To Have Its Own Climate Law

Context: At United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, held at Glasgow, Scotland, India said it wants to be a part of climate solution. But India’s existing laws are inadequate in dealing with climate change.

Challenges before India’s climate aspirations

• Existing laws not adequate to deal with climate change: We have Environment (Protection) Act (EPA), 1986, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. Yet, climate is not exactly water or air.
  • EPA is grossly inadequate: Clause 24 of the Act, “Effect of Other Laws”, states that if an offence is committed under EPA or any other law, the person will be punished under other law. This makes the EPA subordinate to every other law.
• Lack of integrated action: An integrated climate action, covering adaptation and mitigation and monitoring progress is missing.
• Socio-developmental needs: Climate action cannot come by furthering sharpening divides or exacerbating poverty.
• New environmental concerns: 500 Gigawatt by 2030 goal for renewable, solar or wind power for example (of installed power capacity from non-fossil sources), can put critically endangered grassland and desert birds such as the Great Indian Bustard at risk, as they die on collision with wires in the desert.
• Haphazard environmental policies: Eg. The ban on plastic bags in Delhi is a failure because plastic bag substitutes were never really pushed at scale by the understaffed environment department.

Way Forward

• Institutional reforms – Create a Commission on Climate Change: With the power and the authority to issue directions, and oversee implementation of plans and programmes on climate.
  • The Commission could have quasi-judicial powers with powers of a civil court to ensure that its directions are followed in letter and spirit.
  • It should be assisted by a technical committee which can advise commission in discharge of its functions and guide various private and public agencies in meeting climate-related obligations.
• Policy reforms – Carbon efficiency to be the critical driving factor: Facilitate intelligent interventions for reduction of footprints, integrating common sense, and practical public health interventions.
  • In a recent case in the National Green Tribunal it was revealed that the National Thermal Power Corporation did not even cover coal wagons with tarpaulin on railways, decades after environmental clearances were granted in 1999, in Chhattisgarh.
  • In 2020, the Supreme Court passed an order directing for the wagons to be covered within a month’s time. This resolves the issue of respirable coal dust that is spewed into the air through irresponsible transportation.
• A system of liability and accountability at short-, medium- and long-term levels: This also means having a legally enforceable National Climate Change Plan that goes beyond just policy guidelines.
  • Climate vagaries not an act of God: National Green Tribunal in 2016, examined the damage caused when floods occurred in 2013 in Pauri, Uttarakhand and concluded that, while muck is not hazardous, the handling of dam, especially in a mountainous area in the face of climate events created serious damage.
  • The court held the damage was not an ‘Act of God’ and invoked the Principle of No Fault liability.

Conclusion: There is an urgent moral imperative to tackle climate change and reduce its worst impacts. But we also should Indianise the process by bringing in a just and effective law — with guts, a spine, a heart, and, most importantly, teeth.