Indian Climate Policy, Programs, and Initiatives

Abstract

Climate change has become a schmooze at an international and diplomatic level around the world since the 1970s and particularly from the time of 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which gave a whole new dimension to this issue by highlighting its importance to sustainable development. However, it is imperative to look at how it is translated into ginormous Indian national policies and program enforcement and then how these initiatives interacted at domestic levels? India’s predominantly agrarian economy and unique geographical setting play a very vital role to make the country one of the climate-sensitive regions in Asia. Realizing the fact that the climate change phenomenon can threaten the country’s developing economy and livelihood structures, therefore it has initiated various climate change policies, plans, and adaptation measures. Highlighting its national initiatives on climate change diplomacy at the international platform, this chapter first scrutinizes various relevant literature documents related to the climate issue, encapsulates landmark decisions on climate policies and initiatives undertaken by the Government of India. Afterward, it has set the scene for India’s role in climate change policy, plans, missions, and programs at both domestic and international levels. It has focused in detail on constitutional and judicial provisions of India in support of climate change and environment protection articles, laws, acts, and statutes of India for multifaceted understanding from people’s perspective.