‘Climate Change Is Really A Here And Now Problem'

A new volume of essays examines the multidimensional impact of climate change on India, and why development need not be at odds with a low carbon future

- Rihan Najib

In November, Oxford Dictionaries declared ‘climate emergency’ the word of the year, following an estimated 10,796 per cent increase in its usage. The alarming popularity of the phrase underpins the anxiety of living on a warming planet, subject to escalating and unpredictable climatic variations.

India is among the most vulnerable countries to climate change, which is exacerbated by the fact that its vision for accelerated economic development is perennially at odds with the steep cost of environmental degradation. These trade-offs and debates form the core of India in a Warming World: Integrating Climate Change and Development, a volume of essays edited by Navroz K Dubash, a professor at the Delhi-based think tank, Centre for Policy Research.

Dubash has long been invested in studying India’s response to the challenges of climate variations; he was the first international coordinator of the civil society organisation Climate Action Network in 1990. Currently, he is a coordinating lead author for the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The former associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, was part of India’s Expert Committee on Low Carbon Strategies for Inclusive Growth, and other national committees on energy policy.

BLink met Dubash at his office when Delhi’s pre-winter smog was at its peak; providing a grim, and particularly apt, setting for a conversation on the long road ahead for contending with the effects of climate change. Edited excerpts:

Q Since your earlier work Handbook on Climate Change and India came out in 2012, what changes have you observed in India's approach towards climate change?