Table Of ContentEnvironmental Policy in India
This book systematically introduces historical trajectories and dynamics of environmental
policy and governance in India.
Following the features of environmental policy in India as outlined in C hapter 1, sub-
sequent chapters explore domestic and international factors that shape e nvironmental
policy in the country. The chapters examine the interplay between governmental and
non-governmental actors, and the influence of social mobilisation and institutions on
environmental policy and governance. Analysing various policy trajectories, the chapters
identify and explore five central environmental policy subsystems: forests, water, climate,
energy and city development. The authors drill down into the social, economic, politi-
cal and ecological dimensions of each system, shedding light on why striking a balance
between national economic growth and environmental sustainability is so challenging.
Drawing on political science theories of policy processes and related theoretical con-
cepts, this innovative edited volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of
environmental policy and politics and South Asian studies more broadly.
Natalia Ciecierska-Holmes is developing her PhD project focusing on gender and climate
change adaptation in India. She graduated from the Euromaster programme with a degree in
European Studies and Politics from the University of Bath, the Humboldt University Berlin
and the Freie University Berlin. She has a background in linguistics, languages and politics
and has developed a strong interest in environmental politics and governance in India.
Kirsten Jörgensen is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political and S ocial Sciences,
Freie Universität Berlin. She received her PhD in 1996 at Freie U niversität Berlin. Her pri-
mary fields of interest include comparative environmental politics, European and Indian
environmental and climate policy as well as the role of subnational governance. She was
coordinator of the Indian-European Multi-level Climate Governance Research Network.
Lana Laura Ollier is a PhD student at the ETH Zürich and works for the Institute for
Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam. She graduated with a degree in En-
vironmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics and Political
Science, and has a broad background in environmental politics, economics and law.
D. Raghunandan is the Director of the Centre for Technology & Development at the Soci-
ety for Economic & Social Studies and the President of All India People’s Science Network
(AIPSN). He also volunteers with the Delhi Science Forum where he contributes to research
and campaigns in the areas of Environment, Climate Change & Water Resources, Aero-
space and Disarmament & Strategic Affairs. He currently leads the AIPSN campaign on
climate change, conducts research and modelling exercises, and has published extensively
in India and abroad with a focus on India’s climate policy and international negotiations.
Routledge Studies in Environmental Policy
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Chelsea Schelly and Aparajita Banerjee
Green Keynesianism and the Global Financial Crisis
Kyla Tienhaara
Governing Shale Gas
Development, Citizen Participation and Decision Making in the US, Canada,
Australia and Europe
Edited by John Whitton, Matthew Cotton, Ioan M. Charnley-Parry, Kathy Brasier
The Politics of Aquaculture
Sustainability Interdependence, Territory and Regulation in Fish Farming
Caitríona Carter
Strategic Designs for Climate Policy Instrumentation
Governance at the Crossroads
Gjalt Huppes
The Right to Nature
Social Movements, Environmental Justice and Neoliberal Natures
Edited by Elia Apostolopoulou and Jose A. Cortes-Vazquez
Guanxi and Local Green Development in China
The Role of Entrepreneurs and Local Leaders
Chunhong Sheng
Environmental Policy in India
Edited by Natalia Ciecierska-Holmes, Kirsten Jörgensen, Lana Laura Ollier and
D. Raghunandan
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Studies-in-Environmental-Policy/book-series/RSEP
Environmental Policy in India
Edited by Natalia Ciecierska-Holmes,
Kirsten Jörgensen, Lana Laura Ollier
and D. Raghunandan
First published 2020
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ciecierska-Holmes, Natalia, editor.
Title: Environmental policy in India / Edited by Natalia Ciecierska-Holmes,
Kirsten Jörgensen, Lana Laura Ollier, and D. Raghunandan.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Routledge studies in environmental policy | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019040816 (print) | LCCN 2019040817 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367357658 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429341533 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Environmental policy—India. | Environmental
management—India. | Environmental protection—India. |
India—Environmental conditions.
Classification: LCC HC440.E5 E59 2020 (print) | LCC HC440.E5 (ebook) |
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Contents
List of authors and affiliations vii
Acknowledgements x
PART 1
Institutions and Actors 1
1 Introduction: environmental policy in India 3
NATALIA CIECIERSKA-HOLMES, KIRSTEN JÖRGENSEN,
LANA LAURA OLLIER AND D. RAGHUNANDAN
2 Environmental competencies in India’s federal system 17
WILFRIED SWENDEN AND REKHA SAXENA
3 The role India’s states play in environmental policymaking 39
KIRSTEN JÖRGENSEN
4 Civil society and state interaction in environment policy in India 60
SUNAYANA GANGULY
PART 2
Environmental policy subsystems in India 87
5 Forest governance in India: achieving balance within
a complex policy subsystem 89
SMRITI DAS
6 India: dilemmas of water governance 111
JOYEETA GUPTA AND RICHA TYAGI
vi Contents
7 Sustainable energy: prospects and challenges 133
KAUSHIK RANJAN BANDYOPADHYAY, MADHURA JOSHI AND
RAINER QUITZOW
8 Factors shaping the climate policy process in India 158
DENISE FERNANDES, KIRSTEN JÖRGENSEN AND N.C. NARAYANAN
9 Smart sustainable cities 174
SHALEEN SINGHAL AND SOURABH JAIN
PART 3
India within the context of global environmental governance 201
10 India’s climate policy: Paris Agreement, NDC and after 203
D. RAGHUNANDAN
11 India’s relations with the European Union on
environmental policy 225
DIARMUID TORNEY
12 Environmental politics in India: institutions, actors
and environmental governance 241
NATALIA CIECIERSKA-HOLMES AND KIRSTEN JÖRGENSEN
Index 259
Authors and affiliations
Kaushik Ranjan Bandyopadhyay is an Associate Professor with IIM L ucknow
(IIML). Prior to joining IIML, he was principal policy adviser with International
Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and has been leading the
UNEP India Mission towards measuring SDG 12.c.1 on fossil fuel subsidy
executed jointly with Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation,
Government of India.
Natalia Ciecierska-Holmes is developing her PhD project focusing on gender
and climate change adaptation in India. She graduated from the Euromaster
programme with a degree in European Studies and Politics from the University
of Bath, the Humboldt University Berlin and the Freie University Berlin. She
has a background in linguistics, languages and politics, and has developed a
strong interest in environmental politics and governance in India.
Smriti Das is an Associate Professor at the Department of Policy Studies, TERI
School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, India. Her research interests include
public policy processes, institutions and resource politics, forest governance,
decentralisation, gender and other cross-cutting issues at the interface of envi-
ronment and development.
Denise Fernandes is a PhD candidate at the Environmental Studies Programme,
University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. Denise holds a Master’s in Sustaina-
ble Development Practice from TERI University, New Delhi and a Bachelor’s
in Political Science from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India. Her research
focuses on climate and environmental justice and inequality, mitigation and
adaptation, energy governance and policy initiatives in transitional countries
specifically in India and South Asia.
Sunayana Ganguly is currently an Assistant Professor at the Azim Premji
University in Bangalore. She received her PhD in Political Science from the
Environmental Policy Research Centre Freie Universität Berlin. She has pre-
viously worked with the Industrial Ecology Group, University of Lausanne
(Switzerland) and the German Development Institute (Bonn). Her work ex-
plores environmental governance, civil society, deliberative democracy and
sustainable consumption with a focus on South Asia.
viii Authors and affiliations
Joyeeta Gupta is a Professor of Environment and Development in the Global
South at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of the U niversity
of Amsterdam and UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft. She
is currently co-chair of the Global Environmental Outlook being coordinated
by United Nations Environment.
Sourabh Jain is currently pursuing his doctorate from the Department of Energy
and Environment at TERI University, New Delhi, India. His PhD research
work focuses on analysing resource efficiency in urban built environment in
Indian cities, with a focus on construction and demolition waste management
and recycling. His research interests include life cycle analysis, optimisation of
circular supply chain, and mathematical modelling of complex systems.
Kirsten Jörgensen is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political and S ocial
Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin. She received her PhD in 1996 at Freie
Universität Berlin. Her primary fields of interest include comparative envi-
ronmental politics, European and Indian environmental and climate policy as
well as the role of subnational governance. She was coordinator of the Indian-
European Multi-level Climate Governance Research Network.
Madhura Joshi leads the work on energy access, green jobs and climate policy
work at the Natural Resources Defence Council’s India-Program. She has a
graduate degree in International Political Economy from the London School
of Economics, UK, and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from
St. Xavier’s College. Her research interests include pathways of sustainable en-
ergy transitions in developing countries; energy poverty; energy and climate
change governance; and co-benefits-based participatory approaches to climate,
energy and development policy-making.
N. C. Narayanan is a Professor at the Centre for Technology Alternatives for
Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay; an associate faculty of the Interdepart-
mental Programme on Climate Change; and a member of the core faculty
group in the newly formed Centre for Policy Studies in IIT Bombay. His
research areas are technology and development, public policy process (water
reforms and climate change), scaling up technology alternatives and political
ecology of resource use.
Lana Laura Ollier is a PhD student at the ETH Zürich and works for the Insti-
tute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam. She graduated in
Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics
and Political Science, and has a broad background in environmental politics,
economics and law.
Rainer Quitzow is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced
Sustainability Studies and a Senior Lecturer in Innovation Economics at the
Technische Universität Berlin. He holds a Doctorate in Political Science from
the Freie Universität Berlin. His research focuses on sustainable innovation,
industrial policy, and governance of the energy transition in Germany and
Authors and affiliations ix
beyond. In particular, he has focused on the internationalisation of emerging
renewable energy industries and the changing role of emerging economies in
this context.
D. Raghunandan is the Director of the Centre for Technology & Development at
the Society for Economic & Social Studies and the President of All India People’s
Science Network (AIPSN). He also volunteers with the Delhi Science Forum
where he contributes to research and campaigns in the areas of Environment,
Climate Change & Water Resources, Aerospace and Disarmament & Strategic
Affairs. He currently leads the AIPSN campaign on climate change, conducts
research and modelling exercises, and has published extensively in India and
abroad with a focus on India’s climate policy and international negotiations.
Rekha Saxena is a Full Professor at the Department of Political Science, U niversity
of Delhi. She did her graduation and postgraduation from Hindu College, and
MPhil and PhD from the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.
She started her teaching career from St. Stephen’s College. She specialises in
the study of Indian and comparative politics with special reference to federal
political institutions, constitution, centre–state relations, federalism, elections
and party system.
Shaleen Singhal is a Professor at TERI School of Advanced Studies and had
been a Visiting Fulbright Professor at Yale University in 2018. He is an
architect-planner with a PhD on City Competitiveness that received the
Global 2009 Emerald/EFMD award for outstanding doctoral research. His re-
search work and publications lay emphasis on the sustainable redevelopment
in cities, ecology-based urban planning, and effective policy and governance
for cities in emerging economies like India.
Wilfried Swenden is an Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer in Politics and
Co-Director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of
Edinburgh. He has worked extensively on multi-level governance and feder-
alism in Europe and South Asia. He recently (2017) completed a Leverhulme
International network grant on Continuity and Change in Indian Federalism
involving three UK-based and three India-based universities.
Richa Tyagi works as an independent consultant on environmental law and
policy in New Delhi. She has worked with organisations like WWF India in
the past. She holds an LLB degree from Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law,
University of Delhi and B.A. (Hons.) English from Lady Shri Ram College,
University of Delhi. Her interest lies in looking at the intersection of law and
conservation of natural resources in the Indian landscape.
Diarmuid Torney is an Assistant Professor in the School of Law and Government
at Dublin City University, Ireland. He holds an MPhil and a DPhil (PhD) in
International Relations from the University of Oxford. His research focuses on
the global politics of climate change and energy, particularly in the European
Union, China and India.
