Green issues

Green issues

Will voters get swayed?
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At a time when freak heatwaves, droughts and floods are a recurring feature and poisonous smog blanks most Indian cities during winter, climate and environmental issues should have swayed the electorate and should have been the topmost priority of mainstream political parties. However, it is the freebies like free electricity for farmers, free transport for women and cooking gas price cuts that are a recurring feature of election manifestoes that most voters look forward to.

Aditya Valiathan Pillai, fellow, Sustainable Futures Collaborative co-ordinating climate adaptation & resilience research, says on one side you have welfare and developmental projects as a ‘balancing factor’ for climate shocks. On the other side, “It’s about gas cylinders, energy access, cheaper electricity…all of that is climate. It’s just that it’s not ‘Extinction Rebellion’-style climate politics”. 

“I think we see climate politics as the sort of existential, titanic fight for the future of humanity where climate progressives arm wrestle climate deniers. It’s not. There’s a much greater diversity in climate politics. The core difference is the politics of gain and the politics of loss, and we are in the politics of gain in India because it’s such a low baseline of development. In the West, it’s the exact opposite.”  

Climate and environmental issues may not exactly sway the voters but on paper they have been on the promise list since 2019. That was the year when the BJP set out an ambitious renewable energy target of 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022 and Aam Aadmi Party campaigned on its air pollution and electric vehicle policies in Delhi. The Congress, in turn, pledged to bring back protections against deforestation and land-use change. The Bahujan Samaj Party promised to deploy clean energy to ‘destroy caste discrimination’, as “an over-dependence on coal directly impacts tribal populations who are constantly under threat in the name of power-generation”.

This year, however, climate change is mentioned in all national party manifestos published so far, along with commitments to promote renewable energy and, for the first time ever, critical minerals. For example, the BJP and Congress manifestos both emphasise working towards achieving net-zero by 2070. 

The BJP manifesto promises the country ‘energy independence’ by 2047 through “a mix of electric mobility, network of charging stations, renewable energy production and improving energy efficiency”. It also sets out a 500GW renewable energy target – although it does not specify when this goal would be met.

Big promises

If voted in again, the Modi government says it plans to achieve this through setting up ‘mega’ solar and wind parks and a clean energy corridor, with aims to turn India into a global renewable energy manufacturing hub.  The manifesto emphasises scaling up bioenergy and green hydrogen production, developing small modular nuclear reactors and incentivising private investment in large-scale battery storage.

In the run-up to the elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a rooftop solar scheme and promised farmers in the critical election state of Uttar Pradesh to turn India’s sugarcane belt into a biofuel belt. However, while the BJP’s manifesto pledges to support India’s automobile industry transition to electric vehicle manufacturing, it fails to mention coal even once or to outline how heavy industry will be decarbonised, beyond its existing Green Credit Programme. 

In an election where unemployment is set to be a key voting issue, the Congress pledged a ‘Green New Deal Investment Programme’ and a ‘Green Transition Fund’. It pledges to generate millions of jobs in renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure and mining critical minerals. Its renewable energy plans lack specific targets, but remain strongly focussed on decentralised power and job generation in rural India, with incentives for village councils and farmers to set up solar grids. 

The Congress is the only national party promising to increase allocations to the National Adaptation Fund and wants to create an independent environment authority akin to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Both Congress and CPI have promised to look into landslides caused by floods that caused severe crop losses last year and to reverse ‘anti-people’ amendments to the forest and environmental laws made under the Modi government.

The CPI is the only national party to explicitly mention coal in its manifesto, calling for unexplored private coal blocks to be returned to state-run Coal India. Similarly, it is the only party, however, miniscule its presence, to pledge a participatory ‘just transition plan’ to protect communities and coal workers ‘affected in the process of transitioning to renewable energy from fossil fuel(s)’. Its manifesto promises to end private monopolies in renewable energy, seeking to establish the government’s ‘decisive stake’ in the sector.

It remains to be seen whether the heat, deforestation or renewable jobs sway Indian voters as they step out to vote over seven phases this scorching summer. 

Rakesh Joshi

rakesh.joshi@businessindiagroup.com

Business India
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