Missing: Questions On Climate Change In India's Parliament

Parliament members in India are not discussing the climate crisis enough.

A new analysis of parliamentary questions between 1999 and 2019 has shown that only 0.3% of the total questions raised have been related to the climate crisis. The study, done by researchers at the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability at Azim Premji University, found that over the two-decade period, only 895 unique questions on climate were asked by 1,019 ministers.

"Despite the significant and growing vulnerability of India to climate change, parliamentary questions related to climate change were largely missing," the study said. "Raising the level of parliamentary debate on climate change is critical and needs to be foregrounded."

In India, the first hour of every day during a session of the Lok Sabha is devoted to questions raised by members of Parliament. The ministers concerned are obliged to answer either orally or through writing. It is one of the ways through which lawmakers hold the government accountable.

"In a well-functioning democracy, parliamentary oversight can play an important role in climate change policy, ensuring that climate concerns are represented in national agendas," the researchers wrote.

To be sure, the researchers said that over time, questions related to climate change have increased. But there is room for substantial growth, especially in areas of climate justice and adaption.

Of the years analysed, 2015 saw the highest number of unique questions around climate change being asked at 104. The largest spike was seen in 2007 where the number of questions increased to 53 from just eight in the previous year.

The study also noted that questions on climate change were largely related to external political events. 2007 saw the sharpest increase as it was the year before the National Action Plan on Climate Change was launched.

The highest number of questions in 2015 were also after the Ministry of Environment and Forests was renamed the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change with an expanded portfolio.

Most questions were from MPs of richer, bigger states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. "Further, despite the fact that climate impacts are largely local, our findings indicate that MPs from the most climate vulnerable states are not asking questions on climate change."

Over half of the questions are focused mainly on two aspects of climate change: impact and mitigation. But they were mostly concerned with agriculture, coastal change and energy.

Barely any of the questions were focused on addressing the issues of socio-economic vulnerability. Over the two decades, only six questions were around the disproportionate climate impact on vulnerable socio-economic groups.

"This is a staggering gap considering the importance of caste issues on social justice and access to governmental schemes and policies in India," the study said. "This is in sharp contrast to other PQs in India, which often focus on social welfare especially of historically marginalised groups."

Another "puzzling" aspect was the lack of focus on adaption—or how the society would adjust to current and upcoming extremities that come due to climate change.

The researchers said that one of the likely reasons for low representation of questions around climate change in the Parliament could be that climate does not affect voter behaviour in India. "This is perhaps in contrast to countries such as the U.S., and in the EU where civil society action has increased the saliency of the climate action on the political agenda."

According to the researchers, media coverage could play a major influential role as most MPs get their information on climate change from studies, reports and newspaper articles.