One Long Day in Copenhagen

The Paris Agreement of 2015 was shaped by several rounds of negotiations in decades prior. Events in Copenhagen in 2009 were pivotal in defining negotiation dynamics between developing and developed countries. This chapter offers a vivid first-hand account of the pressures and intricacies of negotiations that year. It describes the uneasy coordination between India and China as they worked to represent the interests of the developing world under the umbrella of the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, and China) grouping. It also lays bare the fundamental divergence in interests between the developed and developing worlds. It does so by detailing tense side negotiations on differentiated responsibilities in reducing emissions, the financial commitments of developed countries, and systems for transparent evaluation of commitments.

Climate Finance

This chapter focuses on the evolution of the concept of climate finance in India, reviews India’s current efforts at mobilizing finance for mitigation and adaptation from various sources, analyses the major drivers behind the flow of such funds, and discusses institutional arrangements around climate finance and their implications. The chapter also discusses the difficulties in estimating India’s climate finance flow and needs, driven in part by lack of clarity on what counts as climate finance. Although India has been able to leverage funds from a variety of sources, the quantum of funds is inadequate, given the large requirements. The key challenge will be to coordinate these multiple actors and channels of climate finance, and enable them to integrate with larger policy processes in order to secure and deliver climate finance that serves India’s interests and is truly transformational in its impact.

Impact of Climate Change on India

India’s high population density, large spatial and temporal variability in rainfall, and high poverty rates make it particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This chapter provides a baseline of knowledge on evidence and impacts. More frequent episodes of extreme rainfall, longer dry spells, higher sea levels, and heat waves are expected. This will have unpredictable impacts on agriculture and public health. There has been an increase in the national mean surface air temperature and the number of hot days, significant regional variations in rainfall patterns, measurable melting of Himalayan glaciers, and a rise in sea level on both the coasts of the country. High levels of air pollution could exacerbate changes in rainfall patterns. India will need better climate models to predict impacts by state and region, a prerequisite for informed adaptation policy.

Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation

This chapter provides an overview of issues surrounding the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation in the agriculture sector with focus on India. The status of adaptation research focusing on triggers of adaptation and adaptation strategies, such as innovation, adoption of technologies, risk management, and migration, are discussed. The chapter then deliberates on approaches for mainstreaming climate change adaptation policies, namely, climate-proofing, climate-first, and development-first. The wide-ranging budgetary requirements made by the State Action Plans on Climate Change for the agricultural sector highlight the need for a coherent approach for assessing adaptation budgets, along with the establishment of climate and disaster cells in the line departments of the state governments to integrate the climate risks with the developmental plans.

Climate Adaptation in the Water Sector in India

Climate change is likely to affect both the short-term variability of water resources through increased frequency and intensity of droughts and floods, and long-term changes in mean renewable water supply. Both models and historical data suggest that temperatures have increased in most parts of India, affecting the hydrologic cycle through decreased Himalayan snowpack, increased evaporation, and evapotranspirative demand by vegetation. In contrast, there are uncertainties about the climate–rainfall relationship. While most climate models predict intensification of the Indian monsoon, past rainfall trends suggest a weakening and a regional redistribution, perhaps due to local factors such as aerosols, land use change, and sea surface temperatures. Translating these uncertain projections to water availability is complicated by sparse hydrologic records and human modifications of catchments. Empirical research suggests that climate change is not the only stressor. As climate and socio-economic futures are interlinked, this requires participatory, adaptive management and mainstreaming of adaptation across agencies.

An Introduction to India’s Evolving Climate Change Debate

How is India engaging the climate change challenge? This introductory chapter explains the changing context for climate change debates in India, from one focused on diplomatic concerns of equity and responsibility for the problem to one equally concerned with understanding its development implications. The chapter lays out the rationale for why the book examines climate change impacts, negotiations, politics, policies, and integration across sectors, briefly discussing key themes. It ends with four overarching messages on the contours of the Indian climate debate.

Business Action on Climate Change

This chapter provides a perspective on how the Indian private sector is responding to sustainability and climate change challenges by beginning to embrace the idea of a ‘triple bottom line’. It notes that an increasing number of Indian businesses have begun to take actions, such as increased sustainability, environmental reporting, and adoption of internal actions, including setting emission targets and an internal carbon price. However, the pace is not uniform; large companies with a global footprint, and some sectors like electricity, are moving faster than others. While, globally, this shift is due to greater pressures from regulators, investors, customers, employees, and communities, in India, regulations are the dominant external trigger, with civil society action growing in importance. While leadership companies will continue to mainstream sustainability and climate change into their core business, this process will be significantly deepened if other stakeholders—customers, investors, and employees—also push businesses.

Urban India and Climate Change

India will undergo immense urbanization in the coming decades, doubling its urban population by 2050. This transformation is unique as it will come at the time when the impacts of, as well as the global momentum to respond to, climate change heighten. India’s urban transformation will, therefore, have deep implications for not only local welfare and environmental conditions but also for climate mitigation and climate adaptation. As most of urban India is yet to be built, India has a unique opportunity to lock-in low-carbon, resilient, and equitable urban forms for the long term. This chapter discusses the evolution of India’s urban climate actions, from addressing climate risks to, more recently, mitigation, while also exploring the governance characteristics of these actions. These actions, while nascent, provide an indication that the future trajectory of urban responses to climate change will be shaped by how local development and climate goals will be linked and prioritized.

Energy and Climate Change

Due to the extent of unionization in India’s coal and other carbon-rich sectors, trade unions can resist the tide of privatization and play an active role in formulating a just transition that integrates worker and social concerns into climate responses. An Indian just transition will be located around the need to peak coal usage soon and transition to renewables, with the additional complication of protecting livelihoods, as India’s coal-rich states are also its poorest. This chapter puts forth that democratic, public, and cooperative management of energy systems can prioritize social alongside climate concerns, as part of a wider industrial strategy to retrain workers and decarbonize industry. Climate change will also impact working conditions and workers’ health, with the burden likely to fall on households. Access to social services in workplaces, streets, and homes becomes necessary to alleviate the impacts of climate change on the most vulnerable.

Looking Out, Looking In

The news media has historically been important in shaping and disseminating perceptions, positions, and policies on climate change. This chapter is a discourse analysis of climate change reportage in the Indian print media between 2010 and 2017. Through a process of sampling, coding, and textual analysis, the study finds a gradual evolution in the discourse on climate change: there is greater coverage of domestic policies and interventions in the news; there is convergence around the approach of domestic self-determination in line with the Paris Agreement; and while there is continued emphasis on the responsibility of industrialized economies for ambitious action, articles also advocate action by India and other developing nations, in line with their local development priorities. In other words, there is a perceptible shift in focus in the Indian print media towards ‘looking in’, rather than ‘looking out’ in arriving at a shared consensus on climate change.