It is on the precarious and ever-shifting terrain of Indian federalism that a modern edifice of climate governance must be built. Where is the firm ground? Are there enduring characteristics of centre-state relations that let us arrive at a relatively stable description of Indian climate governance? In this working paper, we arrive at a synthetic account of the constant forces shaping climate governance in India’s federal architecture, building on descriptions of environmental federalism and state actions in climate policy.
We argue that the highly asymmetric nature of Indian federalism — a federal government holds the reins of state finances and constitutes the bulk of planning and bureaucratic capacity — makes compensatory relations between centre and states inescapable in climate governance. Emergent practices have involved the use of institutional channels of fiscal transfer and federally mandated planning processes to help catalyse climate activity across India’s states. States have taken fragments of the national agenda and adapted them to local political contexts that are hitherto innocent of ‘climate’ politics phrased as such. They play the role of marrying broader mitigation and adaptation concerns to local development. In the process, they contribute to the compensatory dynamic by creating a stream of policy ideas that then come to define the national response through channels of federal diffusion.
Suggested Citation: Pillai, A.V. and Dubash, N. K. 2021. “Compensatory Climate Governance in Indian federalism”. Working Paper, Initiative on Climate, Energy and Environment. New Delhi: Centre for Policy Research. April 2021.
Indira Kalyan Vihar, a jhuggi jhopri cluster (JJC) located in one of Delhi’s prime industrial areas, houses a very large population—100,000 by some estimates—in some of the densest conditions of any JJC in the city. Many of the challenges faced by residents in Indira Kalyan Vihar are linked to this density, which makes provision of services difficult. It is also a community divided by political forces, which impede improvement at two levels, blocking internal community organisation and forestalling action by elected officials. While this competitive clientelism might result in better basic services for all, in Indira Kalyan Vihar there has been little material improvement.
A report of the Cities of Delhi project.
Blackouts across India in July 2012 revealed the severity of India’s energy crisis. Looking ahead to 2017, India must increase its energy production by 6.5 percent annually from 2011 levels to maintain a 9 percent growth rate. This growth rate will result in rapid urbanization—India’s building-occupied are is projected to skyrocket from 8 billion square meters in 2005 to 41 billion in 2030.2 Incorporating energy efficiency measures in these new buildings will help India meet its energy needs and increase its energy security.
So that local people can use and understand the laws regulating development and the environment of India’s coast, Namati has created a Coastal Regulation Zones booklet that covers all the information available in the complex official document, but it is presented in a way that ordinary people can understand. The intention is to enrich local people’s existing knowledge of the coastal regulations, while empowering them with tools to protect the coast.
This is achieved using maps to show different zones and sketches to visualise possible scenarios, grouping regulations into different sectors and re-framing the content in order to put the users’ understanding first. The booklet shows all of this in both English and local languages.
A reference card in Tamil is also available, here.
A growing international engagement by border states today has the scope to frame the terms of India’s evolving engagement with its subregional neighbourhood. These hold the potential to recognise the local actor as a critical stakeholder on a range of transborder issues such as trade, energy, environment, land use and transport. Many of these questions will also hold increasingly tricky implications for resource revenue sharing for India, domestically and subregionally. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has articulated the idea of cooperative federalism calling for a ‘new partnership’ between the Centre and the states. But for all its feel-good appeal, it will take more than just rhetoric to get there. Are there effective ways to link fiscal federalism with resource revenue sharing?
Closing the Enforcement Gap: Groundtruthing of Environmental Violations in Sundargarh, Odisha highlights a community-led groundtruthing exercise carried out in relation to operations of the Kulda Open Cast Mining Project in Sundargarh, Odisha. Through the process of groundtruthing, discussions about the impacts faced by people living around the project area were carried out and the conditions that have been placed on the project under the environmental regulatory framework were studied. Issues were identified based on the impacts arising out of non-compliances of these conditions. Evidence was collected of these non-compliances and presented to specific regulatory authorities for action. This document explains the process of groundtruthing, nature of violations and the remedies sought. Along with Closing the Enforcement Gap: Findings of a Community-led Ground Truthing of Environmental Violations in Mundra, Kutch, Closing the Enforcement Gap: Findings of a Community-led Groundtruthing in Sarguja, Chhattisgarh and a
methodology note on groundtruthing, this document can be used as a guide to carry out more such efforts to attain mandated compliance of other projects
This report has now been updated to cover events on the ground from February 2018 till January 2020.
Janabhivyakti, the Centre for Policy Research-Namati Environmental Justice Program and Oxfam India have jointly conducted a groundtruthing study of environmental violations in the Bodai-Daldali bauxite mine located in the Kabirdham district of Chhattisgarh. A groundtruthing study is the process of comparing the facts as mentioned in official documents with the impacts being reported by affected communities.
The methodology included undertaking group discussions with the affected communities. During the group discussions, impacts which the communities were facing were discussed first. This was followed by brief discussions on the various laws and institutions which are available for dealing with impacts arising out of environmental violations. The violations were confirmed by government reports and independent research studies. These reports and studies date back to the year 2007, and some of the impacts have been in existence since the beginning of the mining operations, and have been recorded in the aforementioned reports.
By: CPR-Namati Environmental Justice Program, Janabhivyakti and Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti
This document, titled Closing the Enforcement Gap: Groundtruthing of Environmental Violations in Sarguja, Chhattisgarh,is the second in the series of community led groundtruthing exercises carried out by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR)-Namati Environmental Justice Program in partnership with Janabhivyakti and Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (HABSS). It highlights the process and findings of an exercise where the representatives of a community affected by mining in central India tried to understand whether the impacts of dust pollution, water contamination and felling of trees faced by them were arising out of the non-compliance of law. They systematically collected evidence and filed well drafted complaints to the concerned institutions who could affect remedies. As the final report establishes, this process led to positive official remedies in some cases. In others, the follow up is ongoing.
So that local people can use and understand the laws regulating development and the environment of India’s coast, Namati has created a Coastal Regulation Zones booklet that covers all the information available in the complex official document, but it is presented in a way that ordinary people can understand. The intention is to enrich local people’s existing knowledge of the coastal regulations, while empowering them with tools to protect the coast.
This is achieved using maps to show different zones and sketches to visualise possible scenarios, grouping regulations into different sectors and re-framing the content in order to put the users’ understanding first. The booklet shows all of this in both English and local languages.
A reference card in Tamil is also available, here.
This note is prepared based on our reflections on the announcements made in Budget 2021-22 and participation in the webinar convened by MoP and MNRE, on February 18, 2021, to discuss a roadmap for implementation of these proposals. The note is drafted based on internal discussion at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). They should not be considered an institutional position, as CPR does not take institutional positions on issues. Rather, they reflect the result of internal deliberations, aimed at understanding and reflecting on the reform proposals, with the aim of constructive feedback to the MoP.
