Climate change, what?
Election season is underway in scorching temperatures but in spite of repeated extreme climate scenes, voters still don't demand climate accountability
There are refugees that live among us. They haven’t lost homes due to violence or strife; they haven’t slipped in from across the porous borders seeking a better life, but rather, these are our own, who have lost their homes due to the inexorable force of climate change. Over half a million people were displaced in India in 2023 due to floods, earthquakes, storms, and other disasters. In 2022, the number was an alarming 2.5 million. Global warming and climate change is triggering several of these extreme climate episodes. As we inch closer to yet another Environment Day and offer lip service to the noble green cause, know that no government that comes to power or retains it, has an action plan in place.
Political parties put forward elaborate plans sans specifics, however, the follow-on action is hardly as zealous in the field of climate change as in other areas. The BJP manifesto speaks of India gaining energy independence by 2047, a Green Credit programme, touching 500 GW target of renewable energy installed capacity in the next 6 years, and a new commitment of launching the National Atmospheric Mission titled ‘Mausam’ to make the nation “weather ready” and “climate smart”. The Congress manifesto meanwhile has accepted many climate commitments of the current dispensation, with the inclusion of an “independent” Environment Protection and Climate Change Authority, to track and impose environmental standards, as well as put in place national and state level climate change action plans. Barely any other political party has offered any importance to climate change. As voters, we haven’t demanded it.
In the height of the election season (many states were and are experiencing a scorching heat wave), it’s ironic that as voters, we don’t demand commitments on climate change. As an electorate, we have moved on from roti, kapda, and makaan, not that we don’t need it, we are more enticed by shiny, distracting objects such as community-wise fertility rates, glossy celebs’ fake political endorsements, and propagation of cancel culture of brands that don’t seem Bharatiya (Indian) enough. We are missing out on the biggest crisis facing the nation — climate change.
Consider this — as per a report by Australia’s Monash University, in the last three decades, over a fifth of all deaths caused by heat waves around the world took place in India. Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Delhi, Gujarat, and Rajasthan have all reported climate-related displacements. As per the report by Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), the displacement has been dipped primarily due to the El Nino effect, however, floods and storms ousted people often in the same regions.
In true Indian style, we live for today, do jugaad when going gets tough, and then praise our resilience as a nation. Climate emergencies will not tolerate a winging it attitude. If the Indian satraps don’t work with climate foresight, our region will be brutally punished.
The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal
