Introduction
A large majority of Indians have continued to ignore the potential effects of environmental exploitation and continue to follow an unsustainable lifestyle. After a prolonged period of preying on environment and its elements, the hazardous effects have started to show up in the recent decades. One of the major effects of the environmental exploitation has been climate change which has evolved as a slow poison over the decades.
Climate change is a growing global concern and affects all parts of the world, however, it affects all nations differently since various factors such as the amount of sunlight it receives, its height above sea level, the shape of the land, how close it is to oceans and the emissions it creates.[1] Developing countries like India remain to more vulnerable to climate change. India with its unique geographical location and dense population is vulnerable to all types of climate driven natural disasters triggered by human-driven and development and a failure of adhering to existing laws, highlighting a need for a need for improved policy implementation and ensuring climate justice.
“Climate change” means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.[2]
In recent times, India has experienced a significant increase in the number and frequencies of extreme weather events such as heatwaves across the country, flash floods in the North-eastern region including North Bengal, Assam, and Sikkim in 2024, monsoon floods in Mumbai, droughts in various parts of the country, landslides, and wildfires, resulting in water, electricity, and food shortages due to disrupted infrastructure, loss of agricultural productivity, and strainedresources.[3][4][5][6]
In India, access to clean air is a significant concern, as reflected by the 2023 Air Quality Index (AQI), which categorizes the air quality as “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” with an average AQI of 147. Additionally, the PM2.5 concentration in India is 10.9 times the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual air quality guideline value, highlighting the severe air pollution levels. Many Indian cities lack adequate services, including inconsistent and inadequate accessibility to basic necessities such as water, sanitation, and drainage. A considerable amount of metropolitan people live in substandard living circumstances, commonly referred to as “slums”. The local environment’s health, air, water quality, and solid waste management are seriously damaged and rank amongst the worst on a global scale.
Access to clean drinking water and the right to food are some of the issuesthat are critically related to climate change. The right to food, recognized as a constitutionally protected right in India, was affirmed by the hon’ble Supreme Court of India in PUCL v. Union of India (2001), which declared that the right to food is an integral part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
The daily struggles faced by individuals underscore the importance of ensuring access to a healthy environment, a right guaranteed by the Constitution of India under Article 21, which safeguards the right to life and personal liberty, and Article 14, which guarantees equality before the law. Furthermore, Article 48A directs the State to protect and improve the environment as well as the forests and wildlife of the country, while Article 51A(g) imposes a fundamental duty on every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures.
Climate justice becomes imperative in such a situation and neglecting it would only have far-reaching consequences on the environment and worsen the impact of climate change by increasing structural and socio-economic inequalities and intergenerational inequity. Climate justice entails placing equity and human rights at the core of decision-making.
Ensuring basic human rights act as a bottom-up approach which may possibly reduce concerns related to the increasing climate crisis.
This slow evolution was not recognised by human beings until the change in climate was evidently visible and affecting people. Climate change poses a great challenge to marginalized communities as it amplifies the already existing inequalities in their lives by worsening their situation in social, economic, and environmental disparities.
This pattern occurs because these communities are completely dependent upon nature for their livelihood. These communities generate their daily source of income from their ancestral lands by following traditional practices and are closely linked to their native places where their ancestral lands are located[7]. These people strive to protect their lands and the ecosystems. Due to entry of machinery and destruction equipment, the villages and the other regions which are abundant in minerals, healthy lands etc. are contaminated and wrecked of their original qualities and in a lot of cases, environmentally protected areas are used for industrialisation leading to disastrous consequences. Because of this irreparable destruction, the communities in those areas are affected due to the changes that occur due to disturbances in nature apart from the issues which arise due to dislocation of people.
This directly impacts their capability to protect their native lands and forests which form part of their rich culture, heritage, and traditional knowledge. Therefore, a lot of consequences occur as a direct impact of the modern-day activities.
In the context of climate change, climate justice refers to the practice of placing fairness and human rights at the centre of decision-making and behaviour. Within the context of the climate crisis, the idea has been frequently used to allude to the uneven historical responsibility that governments and communities carry in regard to the catastrophe. It suggests that nations, industries, businesses, and individuals who have become wealthy as a result of emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases have a responsibility to assist those who are impacted by climate change. This responsibility can be especially directed towards the most vulnerable nations and communities, as they are frequently the ones who have contributed the least to the crisis. [8]
In addition, climate justice is an essential component of a fair transition towards a future that involves sustainability. The local communities, particularly the informal labourers and other vulnerable and marginalized population of India, have the potential to suffer damage throughout this transition if they are not safeguarded and consulted properly. For instance, there is a growing concern over allegations of abuses of human rights that are associated with the mining of minerals that are required to produce batteries for electric cars. Those individuals who have made the least amount of contribution to the climate catastrophe are now experiencing a disproportionate amount of its effects. The concept of climate justice proposes that the responsibility for tackling climate change should be shared according to who is contributing the most to the issue, while also addressing disparities that are structural, socioeconomic, and intergenerational in nature.[9]
There have been various obstacles that have prevented the achievement of climate justice.
[1]Adger, W. N. (2006). “Vulnerability.” 16(3) Global Environmental Change, 268-281 (2006)
[2]United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Article 1 ¶ 2, 1992
[3]S. Chakraborty and A. Dasgupta, “Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in India: A Review of the Evidence and Implications for Adaptation Policies” 12 Environmental Research Letters (2017).
[4] Mishra, A. K. & Singh, V. P. A review of drought concepts. J Hydrol (Amst) 391, 202–216 (2010).
[5]Udmale, P. et al. Rural drinking water issues in India’s drought-prone area: a case of Maharashtra state. Environmental Research Letters 11, 074013 (2016).
[6] Dar, M. H. et al. Drought Tolerant Rice for Ensuring Food Security in Eastern India. Sustainability 2020, Vol. 12, Page 2214 12, 2214 (2020).
[7]M. D’Souza, “Climate Change Adaptation and Vulnerability Assessment in India: Legal and Institutional Framework.” 31 Journal of Environmental Law 393-416 (2019).
[8]S. Mukherjee and D. Chakraborty, “Is There Any Relationship Between Environment, Human Development, Political and Governance Regimes? Evidence from a Cross-Country Analysis.” 20 International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology 385-397 (2013).
[9]Zalak Desai and Ying Zhang, “Climate Change and Women’s Health: A Scoping Review”, 9 Geohealth (2021).