Policy Briefs & Reports

An analysis of the Madhya Pradesh State Action Plan on Climate Change

Navroz K Dubash
Anu Jogesh

Centre for Policy Research

February 16, 2014

Unlike some other states such as Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, and Gujarat, climate change has not been a prominent part of the Government of Karnataka’s pronouncements on its future development direction. While senior state bureaucrats have been supportive of developing a plan, there is little evidence that they have championed adapting to or mitigating climate change as a cause, at either the political or bureaucratic levels.

And yet the climate plan in Karnataka is the outcome of three distinct efforts resulting in three parallel documents. In addition, Karnataka is arguably the state with the strongest independent scientific and research capacity on climate change. The presence of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) and other such bodies confers a capability for analysis and understanding on climate change well beyond most other states. This strong base of ability played an important role in shaping the tenor and content of Karnataka’s action plan through a collaboration by these institutions in the form of the Bangalore Climate Change Initiative-Karnataka (BCCI-K). The association resulted in a scientific assessment of the implications of climate change for the state. The formal plan was produced by Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI), an autonomous body under the Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment, Government of Karnataka. In addition to BCCI-K, another non-governmental body, the Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD) also, independently, produced a state action plan.