Yet some of India’s own academics say their government’s climate policy is seriously flawed because of institutional shortcomings, poorly co-ordinated official action, and insufficient sharing of available knowledge.
Navroz Dubash, senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research (CPR), is the lead author of a working paper and a subsequent policy brief on how India can give its climate policy effective institutional form.
He identifies the main problems as a lack of continuity in institutions, lack of co-ordination among government departments, and limited ways of aggregating knowledge.
“On international engagement, it is hard to be pro-active when the task of keeping up with the large array of discussions is so great,” he says. “To be pro-active requires developing a long-term strategy, assessing its merits, and then gradually promoting the idea over time.”
Dubash argues that India needs to learn from the example of neighboring China, the world’s biggest emitter of GHGs, where climate change policy is organised around a National Leading Committee on Climate Change (NLCCC) headed by the prime minister.
Early 2008 saw the establishment in India of the prime minister’s special envoy on climate change to co-ordinate the ministries dealing with work related to climate change − from improving crop varieties and energy efficiency to cutting vehicle emissions and conserving natural resources.
“That ushered in a co-ordinated period of work leading to much progress on climate action,” Dubash says. “But, two years later, the prime minister’s special office was dismantled following a tussle for control with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MoEFCC).”
Since then, he says, India has struggled to co-ordinate its work on climate issues, despite a proliferation of institutions for climate governance.
Read more at India in Disarray over Strategy on Global Warming
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