How States Can Drive the Next Era of Climate Management in India: Perspectives in Mainstreaming Climate Actions from Gujarat

Abstract

At the September 2019 UN climate action summit, India vowed to upscale its climate action by focusing on a low carbon pathway through renewables and other forms of clean energy, adopting sustainable mobility, preserving water, and securing finances for this transition. Implementing and up scaling these actions form an influential agenda under India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. The emphasis on national determination and its success strongly hinges on the ambition of the states and the seriousness it has for driving climate actions. The initial step is to streamline such activities at sub-national levels to achieve climate change goals. Indian states, like countries, are too at different starting points with dissimilarities in their economic and developmental interests. Climate priorities took center stage for a few states, while many others have not been too aspirational due to misplaced prerogatives and differing capabilities. Thus, a pertinent question which arises is, could cross-pollination of ideas and innovations push states for concrete climate actions? This paper discusses a few prominent initiatives from the progressive state of Gujarat that could facilitate the exchange of climate measures in other states.