Climate Change related discussions largely missing from Indian Parliament: Study

The unprecedented 2022 heat wave in India followed by cloudbursts and flash floods in multiple states of the country that led to the loss of hundreds of lives is standing testimony of the growing vulnerability of India to climate change. Over the last few decades, intense climate-related disasters are on the rise in the country. Despite this, discussions related to climate change were largely missing from the Indian parliament. A 2022 research titled, Climate change: the missing discourse in the Indian Parliament, has found this.

According to the study, Parliamentary Questions (PQs) related to climate change comprised a paltry ∼0.3% of the total PQs asked in the parliament over a 20-year period, from 1999 to 2019. The study done by researchers at the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability at Azim Premji University found that 895 unique PQs related to climate change were raised by 1019 Ministers during this period.

It is well-known that PQs are crucial in terms of a well-functioning democracy and parliamentarians through the PQs can bring attention to important issues concerning the country. If properly utilized, PQs can help shape climate change policy so that Indian concerns are well-represented in national and international agendas.

The study found that “PQs were not raised by the states most vulnerable to climate change, nor did they represent the concerns of socially vulnerable groups.” This points to the fact that vulnerable constituency interests in terms of climate change are not being represented in Parliament.

“The PQs were mostly concerned about the impacts (27.6%) and mitigation (23.4%) of climate change. Impacts on agriculture (38.3%), coastal changes (28.6%), and health (13.4%) were of main interest, along with mitigation issues related to energy (43.6%), agriculture (21.8%), and aviation (9.1%),” the study found.

The study also found that the impacts of climate change on the socially and economically disadvantaged groups of society were rarely mentioned. Also, the PQs related to adaptation to climate change were very rare during the period.

The study further observed that the PQs were more related to external political events than severe weather-related disasters. The highest number of questions (104 questions) was asked in 2015. The ‘Ministry of Environment and Forests’ was renamed the ‘Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change’ in 2014. Kerala has been witnessing devastating floods every year since 2018 but this has not got reflected in the PQs from MPs from Kerala, the study found.

The study concluded that one of the reasons for the low representation of PQs about climate change in parliament is because the topic of climate change does not influence voting behaviour in India unlike in US or EU. Also, the study noted that the number of PQs on climate change has increased over time though there is substantial room for growth, especially in critical areas like ‘climate adaption’ in the Indian context.