Environmental Policy in India

• Environmental policy is the commitment of governments, organisations and societies to the laws, regulations, programmes and other mechanisms that govern how people use and affect the natural world.
  • Its field is wide: air and water pollution, waste, ecosystems, biodiversity, natural resources, wildlife and endangered species, and now above all energy and climate change.
• It exists because unchecked economic activity creates costs that the individual actor does not pay. Society and ecosystems pay them instead, so the state steps in to correct the outcome.
• India’s environmental policy has grown from a handful of conservation laws in the early 1970s into a layered system:
  • a constitutional mandate (1976);
  • sector-wise Acts after the Stockholm Conference and the Bhopal disaster;
  • a single National Environment Policy (2006);
  • a climate action plan with national missions (2008);
  • and, since 2015, national climate pledges, market instruments and behaviour-change campaigns such as LiFE and the Green Credit Programme.

Concept and Rationale of Environmental Policy

Meaning of environmental policy

• A widely used working definition: any course of action deliberately taken, or deliberately not taken, to manage human activities so as to prevent or reduce harm to natural resources, ecosystems and nature, and to ensure that man-made changes to the environment do not harm people or other species.
• The idea rests on two conceptual pillars:
  • Environment covers the physical ecosystem and also a social dimension (quality of life, human health) and an economic dimension (resource management, natural capital, biodiversity).
  • Policy is a course of action or principle adopted or proposed by a government, party, business or individual.
  • Environmental policy therefore deals with problems that arise from human impacts on the environment and that rebound on society through damage to health, livelihoods and natural capital.
• The dual concern of environmental policy. Two objectives are pursued together and cannot be separated:
  • to direct human activities so that they do not harm the biophysical environment and its resources;
  • to ensure that changes in the environment do not harm people.
• Scope has widened over time.
  • Early policy focused on conservation (forests, wildlife) and then on pollution control (water, air).
  • Global warming has pushed energy and climate policy to the centre. Energy use, toxic substances and pesticides, industrial and hazardous waste and lifestyles are now all part of environmental governance.
• Public policy and environmental policy.
  • Environmental policy is a branch of public policy, so it follows the usual policy cycle: problem recognition → agenda setting → policy formulation → adoption → implementation → monitoring and evaluation → revision.
  • Its special difficulty is that damage is often diffuse, delayed, uncertain and cross-border, while the costs of control fall on identifiable groups at once.

Why governments intervene: market failure

• The economic case for state action rests on market failure: situations in which unregulated markets misallocate resources, either inefficiently or unfairly.
• Arthur Cecil Pigou (The Economics of Welfare, 1920) showed that when private and social costs diverge, the market overproduces the harmful good. A corrective tax equal to the external damage (the Pigouvian tax) brings the two back into line.
• Ronald Coase (“The Problem of Social Cost”, 1960) argued that, with clear property rights and low bargaining costs, the parties could negotiate the efficient outcome themselves. Because bargaining among millions of pollution victims is impossible, his work became the basis of tradable permits rather than of laissez-faire.
• Three interconnected market failures drive environmental degradation:

Market failure	What it means	Environmental example
Externalities	One party’s action imposes costs (or benefits) on others outside the transaction, without compensation	A factory discharging effluent into a river shifts treatment costs onto downstream users; the cost is “socialised”
Free-rider problem	Private cost of protection exceeds private benefit, though social benefit exceeds social cost, so everyone under-invests	No firm cuts air pollution alone if rivals do not, because cleaner air is enjoyed free by all
Tragedy of the commons	With no owner, each user gains by taking as much as possible before others do, so the resource collapses	Open-sea overfishing, overgrazed village commons, falling water tables in shared aquifers

• Garrett Hardin (“The Tragedy of the Commons”, 1968) made the commons problem famous and argued for either state regulation or privatisation.
  • Elinor Ostrom (Governing the Commons, 1990) showed that communities often manage commons well through their own rules, monitoring and graduated sanctions. Hence Indian policy’s stress on Joint Forest Management, van panchayats and Biodiversity Management Committees.
• Public goods add a fourth strand: clean air, a stable climate and biodiversity are non-rival and non-excludable, so private markets will not supply them.
• Policy failure compounds market failure.
  • Perverse subsidies on power, water, fertiliser and fuel, weak enforcement and wrong prices for resources make degradation cheaper than conservation.
  • The result appears as the degradation of land, water and air that policy later has to repair.
• Conclusion: without intervention to internalise externalities, regulate the commons and price resources correctly, markets overproduce pollution and underproduce environmental goods. Environmental policy is the corrective.

Principles and Instruments of Environmental Policy

Principles of environmental policy

• A small set of guiding principles shapes how environmental policy is designed and enforced.
  • They are not abstract: they are written into international agreements, Indian statutes and Supreme Court judgments.
  • Section 20 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 directs the Tribunal to apply the principles of sustainable development, precaution and polluter pays.

The Polluter Pays Principle (PPP)

• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) adopted the principle in its 1972 Guiding Principles.
  • Its purpose is to allocate the costs of pollution prevention and control so that scarce environmental resources are used rationally and international trade and investment are not distorted.
• Core idea: firms that discharge pollutants must pay a price related to the damage they cause, and must bear abatement costs without government subsidy.
  • The PPP prevents the socialisation of environmental costs; those who generate the costs carry them.
• Indian expansion. The Supreme Court has read the PPP more widely than the OECD did. Absolute liability for environmental harm covers:
  • compensation to victims of pollution (direct costs to people and property);
  • the cost of restoring the degraded environment;
  • remediation of damaged ecosystems as part of sustainable development.
• Landmark applications:
  • M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (the Oleum gas leak case, 1986) laid down absolute liability for hazardous industries, a standard stricter than the PPP because it admits no exceptions.
  • Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action v. Union of India (1996) made the chemical units of Bichhri village, Rajasthan pay for cleaning the land and groundwater they had poisoned.
  • Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India (1996) declared the PPP and the precautionary principle part of the law of the land.
  • NGT orders on Ganga and Yamuna pollution and on illegal mining routinely levy environmental compensation on this basis.
• The North–South dispute. At the Rio Earth Summit (1992) developing countries argued that the historical polluters of the industrialised North should carry most of the cost of global clean-up.
  • This produced the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR), discussed below.

The User Pays Principle (UPP)

• The UPP is an extension of the PPP to resource use: it applies when resources are used up or consumed, not only when pollution is released.
• Every resource user should pay the full long-run marginal cost of that use, including any treatment or restoration it requires.
• Its policy target is the removal of subsidies that encourage waste, such as free or flat-rate irrigation water, subsidised farm power and underpriced fuel, which distort price signals and reward degradation.
• Indian examples: volumetric water tariffs, groundwater extraction charges, entry fees in protected areas and congestion or parking charges in cities.

The Precautionary Principle (PP)

• Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration (1992): where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.
• Core idea: an activity or substance that threatens the environment must be prevented from causing harm even without conclusive proof of a causal link.
  • “Substance” and “activity” here mean the results of human intervention.
• It shifts the burden of proof. Instead of waiting for harm to be proved, the state acts once a credible threat is identified, and the proponent must show that the activity is safe.
• Indian applications:
  • the 2010 moratorium on Bt brinjal, despite the GEAC’s clearance;
  • caution in siting nuclear plants and large dams in seismic zones;
  • the approval regime for hazardous chemicals and pesticides;
  • eco-sensitive zones around protected areas.

Sustainable development and intergenerational equity

• Sustainable development, as defined by the Brundtland Commission (1987), is development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own.
  • In Indian law it is the umbrella principle under which environment and development are balanced, not traded off. It rests on the idea of sustainable growth and development that keeps economic, social and ecological goals together.
• Intergenerational equity treats the present generation as the trustee of the Earth for future generations.
  • The Supreme Court relied on it in State of Himachal Pradesh v. Ganesh Wood Products (1995). It is the second objective of the National Environment Policy, 2006.
• Intragenerational equity asks that the poor and resource-dependent within today’s society are not made to carry the burden of environmental decline or of conservation.

The public trust doctrine

• Rooted in Roman law and developed in the United States, the doctrine holds that certain resources (rivers, seashores, forests, air) are held by the state as trustee for the public and cannot be handed over to private ownership for private benefit.
• The Supreme Court adopted it in M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath (1997), cancelling the lease of riverbank land on the Beas granted to a private motel.
• The NEP 2006 restates it: the state is a trustee, not an absolute owner, of natural resources.

Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR)

• Principle 7 of the Rio Declaration and Article 3.1 of the UNFCCC: all states share responsibility for the global environment, but responsibilities differ with their historical contribution and their respective capabilities.
• The Paris Agreement (2015) keeps the principle and adds “in the light of different national circumstances”. All countries now make pledges, but on a self-determined basis.
• CBDR, with climate justice and equity in the carbon budget, is the backbone of India’s position in climate negotiations.

Principle	Core idea	When it applies	Origin	Indian anchor
Polluter pays	Polluter bears cost of damage and abatement	After pollution is caused	OECD, 1972	Vellore (1996); NGT Act s. 20; EPA 1986
User pays	User pays full cost of resource use	When resources are consumed	Extension of PPP	Water and power tariffs; groundwater charges
Precautionary	Act before proof to avoid irreversible harm	When a credible threat exists	Rio Principle 15, 1992	Vellore (1996); Bt brinjal moratorium (2010)
Sustainable development	Balance needs of present and future	All development decisions	Brundtland, 1987	NGT Act s. 20; NEP 2006
Intergenerational equity	Present generation as trustee for the future	Long-lived resources	Brundtland; Stockholm 1972	Ganesh Wood Products (1995)
Public trust	State holds commons in trust, cannot privatise them	Rivers, coasts, forests, air	Roman and US law	M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath (1997)
CBDR	Shared but unequal duties	Global problems	Rio Principle 7; UNFCCC	India’s NDCs and negotiating stance

Instruments of environmental policy

• Policy instruments are the practical tools that turn a policy into action.
  • No single instrument is best everywhere. Each has strengths and limits that depend on the problem, the economic context and the regulatory capacity of the state.
  • Governments increasingly combine them in a policy mix to deal with many-sided problems flexibly and at lower cost.

Regulatory or command-and-control instruments

• The state sets a rule and enforces it with permits, inspection and penalties. Typical tools:
  • Ambient quality standards: maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in air, water and soil (India’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards, 2009).
  • Emission and effluent standards: limits on what a given source may discharge (Bharat Stage VI vehicle norms from April 2020).
  • Technology standards: compulsory use of the Best Available Technology (BAT), such as flue-gas desulphurisation in thermal plants.
  • Environmental Impact Assessment: prior assessment and clearance of projects under the EIA Notification, 2006.
  • Zoning and land-use controls: coastal regulation zones, eco-sensitive zones and industrial siting rules.
  • Outright bans: for example DDT in agriculture, most ozone-depleting substances and identified single-use plastic items (from 1 July 2022).
  • Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): producers made responsible for the end-of-life management of what they sell.
• Strengths: certainty of outcome, easy to understand, suitable for toxic or hazardous pollutants where any excess is unacceptable.
• Weaknesses:
  • high compliance cost, because every firm must meet the same limit whatever its abatement cost;
  • no incentive to go beyond the standard;
  • heavy demands on monitoring capacity, where India’s State Pollution Control Boards are weakest.

Economic or market-based instruments (MBIs)

• MBIs change prices or create markets so that polluters choose, by their own calculation, to pollute less. Typical tools:
  • Environmental taxes and pollution charges, levied per unit of pollutant discharged (India’s Clean Environment Cess on coal, 2010–2017, which financed clean-energy projects before GST subsumed it).
  • Tradable permits (cap-and-trade): a cap on total pollution, divided into allowances that firms can buy and sell.
  • Baseline-and-credit schemes: firms that beat an intensity target earn certificates they can sell, as under Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT, 2012) and the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (2023).
  • Tax exemptions, accelerated depreciation and subsidies for clean technology and abatement equipment.
  • Deposit-refund systems: a deposit on bottles, batteries or containers, refunded when they are returned.
  • User and administrative charges for waste collection, sewage treatment or entry to protected areas.
  • Green credits (2023): credits issued for voluntary positive environmental actions.
• Indian and world examples:
  • The US Acid Rain Programme (1990) cut sulphur dioxide through allowance trading.
  • The EU Emissions Trading System (2005) is the largest carbon market.
  • Surat’s particulate-matter trading scheme (2019) was the world’s first market for particulate emissions.
• Strengths: least-cost abatement (firms with cheap options cut most), a continuing incentive to innovate and revenue for the state.
• Weaknesses: uncertain environmental outcome under taxes, possible hot spots of local pollution under trading, and the need for reliable measurement and registries.

Voluntary, procurement, information and suasion instruments

• These “soft” instruments work through reputation, information and values. They complement rules and prices rather than replacing them.

Instrument type	What it does	Indian examples
Voluntary measures	Agreements between government and firms; corporate commitments beyond the law	National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (2019); Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) for the top 1,000 listed companies
Green public procurement	State purchases favour environmentally better goods and services	Bulk procurement of LED lamps and efficient appliances (UJALA); BEE star-labelled equipment in government buildings
Information instruments	Eco-labels, disclosure and right-to-know tools that empower consumers and communities	Ecomark Rules, 2024 (replacing the 1991 Ecomark scheme); BEE star labels; real-time air quality data (SAMEER app); PRANA portal for NCAP
Suasion and moral persuasion	Awareness campaigns, education and community action	Mission LiFE (2022); Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam (2024); Swachh Bharat Mission

• Information disclosure works because it lets communities, investors and courts put pressure on polluters. Continuous emission monitoring data from industries, uploaded online, is one example.
• Moral suasion and education shape perceptions, attitudes and values, the slowest but most durable lever, worked through environmental education in schools, colleges and eco-clubs.

Comparing and mixing instruments

Criterion	Command-and-control	Market-based	Voluntary and information
Environmental certainty	High	Medium (tax) to high (cap)	Low
Cost-effectiveness	Low	High	High where it works
Incentive to innovate	Weak	Strong	Moderate
Information needed by regulator	Very high	Moderate	Low
Best suited to	Toxics, hazards, thresholds	Many sources, varied abatement costs	Consumer goods, lifestyles

• Why combinations matter. A mix can give firms flexibility in compliance and reduce uncertainty about costs.
  • Overlapping instruments, however, add administrative cost and can conflict. A firm under both a trading cap and a fixed technology standard gains little from trading.
  • The OECD Environment Directorate collects data on how efficient different policies are, to help governments avoid such overlaps.

International instruments for global externalities

• Global problems, above all climate change, are hard because no country can solve them alone and the temptation to free-ride is strong.
  • International instruments try to reach a cost-effective global outcome by coordinating national action.
• Two conditions must hold for them to work:
  • each country must follow cost-effective domestic policies consistent with the global goal;
  • each country must be free to choose its own way of implementing its international obligations.

International carbon tax

• If all countries levy the same domestic carbon tax (a harmonised tax), marginal abatement costs are equalised across countries, which is the condition for efficiency.
  • Poorer countries would need side payments from richer ones to join.
• Practical problems:
  • Countries that sign under pressure can quietly undo the tax: by cutting existing energy taxes, taxing substitutes such as hydroelectricity, subsidising fossil-fuel-intensive products, or simply not enforcing it.
  • A tax levied directly by an international agency would impinge on national sovereignty and is very hard to negotiate.
• A related newer device is the border carbon adjustment: the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (reporting phase from October 2023, definitive phase from 2026). India opposes it as a unilateral trade barrier that sits uneasily with CBDR.

Tradable emission quotas

• Each member of a coalition is allocated an emission quota. Countries that emit less than their quota can sell the surplus to higher emitters on an international market. Design features:
  • Quotas can be perpetual or time-limited (for example, five-year blocks). Time-limited quotas keep the policy credible and stop large countries accumulating market power.
  • Unused quotas can be banked for later periods.
  • Quotas are best expressed in the carbon content of fossil fuels. If all greenhouse gases are covered, they must be weighted by Global Warming Potential (GWP).
• Precedents: trade in CFC production quotas under the Montreal Protocol and the EU’s CFC consumption quota trading.
• Climate practice: International Emissions Trading under the Kyoto Protocol, and now cooperative approaches under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement (bilateral transfers under Article 6.2 and a UN-supervised crediting mechanism under Article 6.4, made operational at COP29, Baku, 2024).

Tradable pollution permits at home and abroad

• An international quota scheme can coexist with domestic permit schemes. National governments issue permits to fossil-fuel producers or wholesalers and allow trading among them.
• How permits are first handed out matters for both efficiency and equity:

Method	Mechanism	Economic effect	Trade-off
Grandfathering	Free permits in proportion to past emissions	Transfers the permits’ value to incumbents; may prolong old, dirty plants	Politically easy, but favours incumbents and slows clean entrants
Auctioning	Permits sold to the highest bidders; revenue to the state	Revenue can cut distorting taxes; level playing field	Efficient and preferred by economists, but politically harder

• India’s own carbon market is built on this logic. The Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) was notified in June 2023 under the amended Energy Conservation Act.
  • Greenhouse-gas emission-intensity targets were notified for aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali and pulp and paper in October 2025, and for refineries, petrochemicals and textiles in January 2026.
  • It is India’s main domestic tool for carbon neutrality and net zero, alongside a voluntary offset mechanism.

Evolution of Environmental Policy in India

Constitutional foundations

• Unlike many countries where environmental protection is only statutory, India anchors it in the Constitution.
  • The 42nd Amendment (1976) inserted Article 48A and Article 51A(g). It also moved forests and the protection of wild animals and birds from the State List to the Concurrent List (Entries 17A and 17B).
  • These provisions make up the constitutional base of environmental legislation on which every later Act rests.

Article	Provision	Significance
Art. 21	Right to life and personal liberty	Read to include a clean and healthy environment (Subhash Kumar v. State of Bihar, 1991); basis of environmental PIL
Art. 48A (DPSP)	State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and wildlife	Not justiciable but guides policy; added in 1976
Art. 51A(g) (Fundamental Duty)	Every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment and have compassion for living creatures	Used by courts to strengthen environmental duties
Art. 246 and Seventh Schedule	Division of law-making powers	Water (State List 17); forests and wildlife (Concurrent List 17A, 17B); industries and mines partly Union
Art. 253	Parliament may legislate to implement international treaties	Basis of the Air Act 1981 and the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 after Stockholm
Art. 32 and 226	Writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and High Courts	Route for public interest litigation in environmental cases

• Judicial expansion of Article 21. The Supreme Court has been a pioneering institution:
  • the M.C. Mehta line of cases (from 1986) set absolute liability and drove action on the Ganga, Delhi’s air and the Taj Trapezium;
  • Vellore (1996) brought the precautionary principle and PPP into domestic law;
  • T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India (filed 1995, landmark order of December 1996) gave “forest” its dictionary meaning, covering all forest land whatever its ownership or record;
  • since 2010 the National Green Tribunal has been the principal forum for environmental disputes.

Phases of policy evolution

• Phase I: conservation and institution building (1972–1985).
  • The Stockholm Conference (1972) was the trigger. India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the only visiting head of government, asked whether poverty and need were not the greatest polluters.
  • The National Committee on Environmental Planning and Coordination (NCEPC, 1972) was set up. The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, the Water Act, 1974 and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 followed.
  • The Department of Environment came in 1980, and the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 1985.
• Phase II: the post-Bhopal regulatory turn (1986–1991).
  • The Bhopal gas tragedy (2–3 December 1984) exposed the weakness of piecemeal laws.
  • The umbrella Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 followed, together with the National Forest Policy, 1988 (one-third of land under forest and tree cover) and the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991.
• Phase III: Rio and the policy statements (1992–2005).
  • 1992 brought the Policy Statement for Abatement of Pollution, which argued for a mix of regulation, fiscal incentives and voluntary action, and the National Conservation Strategy and Policy Statement on Environment and Development.
  • Rio’s conventions led to the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. Court-driven measures such as CNG for Delhi’s public transport (1998–2002) marked the period.
• Phase IV: integrated policy and climate planning (2006–2014).
  • The National Environment Policy (2006) and the EIA Notification (2006) came first, followed by the NAPCC (2008) and the National Green Tribunal (2010).
  • The Ministry was renamed Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in 2014.
• Phase V: pledges, markets and lifestyles (2015–2026).
  • Climate pledges: the INDC (2015), Panchamrit (2021), the updated NDC (2022) and the NDC for 2031–2035 (2026).
  • Programmes and markets: the National Clean Air Programme (2019), Mission LiFE (2022), the Green Hydrogen Mission, MISHTI, Amrit Dharohar, the Green Credit Programme and the carbon market (2023), and the Ecomark Rules (2024).
  • Law reform: the Forest (Conservation) Amendment, 2023, the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023, and the Jan Vishwas Act, 2023 and Water Amendment Act, 2024, which decriminalised many minor environmental offences.
• The direction of change:
  • from conservation to pollution control to climate;
  • from command-and-control to a mix with markets and behaviour change;
  • from national to multi-level governance (states’ climate plans, city air plans, Biodiversity Management Committees).

The legislative framework in brief

• Policy is carried into force by statutes. The core environmental legislations in India, with the policy role each plays:

Year	Law	Policy role
1927	Indian Forest Act	Reserved and protected forests; colonial-era base still in force
1972	Wild Life (Protection) Act	Sanctuaries, national parks, schedules of protected species; amended 2022 to align with CITES
1974 / 1977	Water Act; Water Cess Act	CPCB and State Boards; consent regime; cess on industrial water use (cess later subsumed in GST)
1980	Forest (Conservation) Act	Central approval for diverting forest land; amended 2023 as Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam
1981	Air Act	Air quality management; noise added as an air pollutant in 1987
1986	Environment (Protection) Act	Umbrella law under Art. 253; base for EIA, CRZ, waste and EPR rules
1991	Public Liability Insurance Act	Compulsory insurance and no-fault relief for hazardous-substance accidents
2002	Biological Diversity Act	NBA, State Boards, BMCs; access and benefit-sharing; amended 2023
2006	Forest Rights Act	Recognises the rights of forest dwellers; links conservation and justice
2010	National Green Tribunal Act	Specialised environmental court applying PPP, precaution and sustainable development
2016	Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act	National and State CAMPA funds for afforestation against forest diversion

• Two points stand out:
  • The Bhopal disaster killed thousands and injured lakhs. It was the catalyst for the umbrella EPA 1986, which was enacted under Article 253 to carry out the Stockholm decisions.
  • Since 2016 the trend has been to govern through delegated rules under the EPA: the waste, plastic, e-waste, battery and EPR rules and the Green Credit Rules. This is faster than new Acts, but less debated in Parliament.

National Environment Policy, 2006

• The National Environment Policy (NEP), 2006, approved by the Union Cabinet in May 2006, was India’s first comprehensive, cross-sectoral environment policy.
  • It built on the sector policies for forests (1988), pollution (1992), conservation (1992), water (2002) and wildlife.
  • It marked a shift from prescriptive, sector-by-sector regulation to an integrated, principle-based approach that treats conservation as a source of livelihood and development.
• Its central proposition: while conservation is everyone’s responsibility, the better-off must accept the greater share of the burden. The best way to secure conservation is to ensure that people dependent on resources gain more from conserving them than from degrading them.

Objectives of the NEP 2006

• Conservation of critical environmental resources: protect the natural and man-made heritage that is essential for life support, livelihoods and welfare.
• Intergenerational equity: use resources judiciously to meet the needs of both present and future generations.
• Efficiency in environmental resource use: reduce resource use per unit of economic output and so minimise adverse impacts.
• Environmental governance: apply good governance (transparency, rationality, accountability, reduced cost and time, public participation) to environmental management.
• Enhancement of resources: use technology, traditional knowledge, managerial skill and social capital to enhance, not merely preserve, environmental resources.
• Livelihood security for the poor: ensure equitable access to resources for poor and tribal communities, who depend on them most.
• Integration of environmental concerns into policies, plans, programmes and projects for economic and social development.

Principles of the NEP 2006

• The NEP sets out fourteen principles to guide action:
  1. Human beings are at the centre of sustainable development concerns.
  2. Right to development, to be met equitably for present and future generations.
  3. Environmental protection is an integral part of development and cannot be treated in isolation.
  4. Precautionary approach.
  5. Economic efficiency, including the polluter pays principle and the valuation of environmental services.
  6. Entities with “incomparable” values: some species and heritage sites have values that no money can replace.
  7. Equity.
  8. Legal liability, through civil and criminal processes, including strict liability for hazardous activity.
  9. Public trust doctrine.
  10. Decentralisation to the level closest to the problem.
  11. Integration of environmental concerns across sectors.
  12. Environmental standard setting suited to the country’s own priorities and resources.
  13. Preventive action.
  14. Environmental offsets, so that unavoidable damage is compensated elsewhere.

Strategies of the NEP 2006

• The NEP set out sector-wise strategies for conservation:

Sector	Key strategy elements
Land degradation	Science-based and traditional land use; reclaiming wasteland through partnerships; desertification action plans
Forests	Raise forest and tree cover from about 23% to 33% of land; universalise Joint Forest Management; recognise tribal rights
Wildlife	Expand protected areas in every biogeographic zone; partnerships for habitat; captive breeding; eco-tourism
Biodiversity	Protect hotspots; conserve the genetic material of threatened species; protect traditional knowledge
Wetlands	Legally enforceable regulation of valuable wetlands; national inventory; wetland impacts in project appraisal
Man-made heritage	Heritage concerns in air quality standards and regional plans; community participation
Mountain ecosystems	Best-practice infrastructure norms; organic farming of traditional varieties; sustainable mountain tourism
Coastal resources	Mangrove and coral reef management; sea-level rise in planning; CRZ notification and integrated coastal zone management
Freshwater	Integrated river basin management; groundwater metering; urban rainwater harvesting; traditional recharge methods

• Regulatory reforms proposed:
  • review of existing laws;
  • regional and cumulative EIA at the planning stage;
  • a wetland regulatory regime (realised in the Wetlands Rules of 2010 and 2017);
  • recognition of forest rights (the Forest Rights Act, 2006);
  • stronger Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies;
  • an annual public review of the policy.

Pollution abatement under the NEP 2006

• The NEP gave action plans for four media:
  • Water pollution: reuse of treated sewage; Common Effluent Treatment Plants on cost recovery; public–private partnerships for treatment; research on low-cost sewage treatment.
  • Air pollution: improved fuelwood stoves and solar cookers; incentive-based controls; investment in low-pollution mass transport; community and NGO monitoring of compliance.
  • Noise pollution: separate ambient noise standards for rural and urban, residential and commercial areas; norms for loudspeakers and vehicles; dialogue with religious and community groups.
  • Soil pollution: clean-up of toxic and hazardous waste dumps; segregation and recycling of municipal waste; plastic waste strategies; organic farming; voluntary eco-labelling; legal recognition of the informal recycling sector; secure landfills through partnerships.
• Assessment: the NEP gave India a coherent philosophy and seeded later laws (Forest Rights Act, NGT Act, Wetlands Rules).
  • Its promised periodic reviews never became routine. Two decades on it is outdated on climate, air quality, plastics and circular economy, the areas that now dominate policy.

National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), 2008

• The NAPCC was released on 30 June 2008 by the Prime Minister. It was prepared under the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change.
• It frames climate action within sustainable development, not as stand-alone emission cuts, and reflects India’s “development first” stance and the CBDR principle.
• Its eight national missions are run by different ministries:
  • National Solar Mission (Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
    • Launched in January 2010 with a target of 20 GW by 2022, raised in 2015 to 100 GW.
    • By 31 July 2026 India had about 165 GW of solar capacity, part of a national goal of 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030. Large solar power parks in Rajasthan and Gujarat and rooftop schemes drive the growth.
  • National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE), Ministry of Power and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency. It has four initiatives:
    • the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme for energy-intensive industries, which issues tradable Energy Saving Certificates;
    • Market Transformation for Energy Efficiency (MTEE);
    • the Energy Efficiency Financing Platform (EEFP);
    • the Framework for Energy Efficient Economic Development (FEEED).
  • National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
    • Energy-efficient buildings under the Energy Conservation Building Code, better urban planning and waste management, and a modal shift to public transport.
    • GRIHA is the national green-building rating system.
  • National Water Mission, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
    • Its headline target is a 20% improvement in water-use efficiency.
    • Its other goals are a comprehensive water database, citizen and state action, focus on over-exploited areas, and basin-level integrated water resources management.
    • Progress has been slow. The Jal Jeevan Mission (2019) and Jal Shakti Abhiyan now dominate the water sector.
  • National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE), Department of Science and Technology.
    • It covers glaciers, mountain ecosystems, biodiversity and traditional knowledge, and supports state climate change cells in the Himalayan states.
    • The separate National Mission on Himalayan Studies is run by MoEFCC.
  • National Mission for a Green India (GIM), MoEFCC.
    • Target: increase forest and tree cover on 5 million ha and improve the quality of forest on another 5 million ha, while raising incomes from forest resources for forest-dependent households.
  • National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
    • Climate-resilient practices, rainfed area development, soil health, integrated farming and water-use efficiency.
    • It is linked with the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (“more crop per drop”).
  • National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC), Department of Science and Technology.
    • Builds research capacity, centres of excellence, climate modelling and a knowledge network.

New missions and revision of the NAPCC

• The ninth mission. A mission on climate change and human health was proposed in 2015. It took shape in 2019 as the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with the National Centre for Disease Control as nodal agency.
  • It is now listed on the NAPCC portal as the National Mission on Climate Change and Human Health. It covers surveillance of climate-sensitive diseases, heat-health action and health-system preparedness.
• Further missions:
  • missions on wind energy, coastal areas and waste-to-energy were proposed from 2015 onward;
  • a sustainable transport mission has been drafted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and would be the first new mission in more than a decade;
  • none of these had been formally added by late 2026.
• Revision. The mission documents are being revised to match the updated NDC, and states have been asked to revise their State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs).
  • Every state and Union Territory prepared an SAPCC after 2010, but most plans are dated and under-funded.

Critical evaluation of the NAPCC

• Strengths:
  • it gave India its first climate framework;
  • it mainstreamed renewables and energy efficiency (the solar mission and PAT are its clearest successes);
  • it made climate a concern of many ministries and every state.
• Weaknesses:
  • No binding emission target of its own; mitigation ambition now sits in the NDCs.
  • Uneven missions: solar and efficiency moved fast, while water, Himalayan, agriculture and habitat missions lagged.
  • Weak monitoring: missions cut across ministries and there is no single progress dashboard or independent review.
  • Centre–state gap: SAPCCs are weakly linked to state budgets and slow to be revised.
  • Underfunding: most adaptation-heavy missions rely on existing schemes rather than dedicated finance.
  • Adaptation deficit: India recorded extreme weather on 331 of the 334 days from January to November 2025, yet adaptation receives far less money and attention than mitigation.

India’s climate commitments: from INDC to the NDC for 2035

• Panchamrit. At COP26 (Glasgow, 1 November 2021) the Prime Minister announced five commitments, the “Panchamrit”:
  • 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030;
  • 50% of energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030;
  • a cut of one billion tonnes in total projected carbon emissions by 2030;
  • a cut of more than 45% in the carbon intensity of the economy by 2030;
  • net-zero emissions by 2070.
• Not all of these were carried into the formal updated NDC, approved by the Cabinet in August 2022, which became the legally communicated pledge under the Paris Agreement.

Pledge	Emission intensity of GDP (from 2005)	Non-fossil share of installed power capacity	Carbon sink (forest and tree cover)	Other elements
INDC (October 2015), for 2030	33–35% cut	40%	Additional 2.5–3 billion t CO₂e	Adaptation, finance and technology needs
Updated NDC (August 2022), for 2030	45% cut	50%	Additional 2.5–3 billion t CO₂e	LiFE as a mass movement; net zero 2070 as long-term goal
NDC 2031–35 (Cabinet, March 2026)	47% cut by 2035	60% by 2035	3.5–4 billion t CO₂e by 2035	Adaptation measures; LiFE; Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam

• Progress:
  • The emission intensity of GDP fell by 36% between 2005 and 2020.
  • The 40% non-fossil capacity target of 2015 was reached in 2021, and the 50% target of 2022 in June 2025, five years early.
  • By 31 July 2026 non-fossil capacity had passed 300 GW, over 54% of India’s installed power capacity, with about 165 GW solar and 58 GW wind.
  • Capacity is not generation: coal still supplies most of the electricity actually produced.
• Net zero by 2070 is India’s long-term goal. The road to it runs through the NDCs, the carbon market and green hydrogen.

Contemporary flagship programmes, 2019–2026

• National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), January 2019.
  • It covers 130 non-attainment and million-plus cities, each with a city action plan.
  • The first target, a 20–30% cut in particulate matter by 2024 (2017 base), was revised to up to 40% reduction in PM10 by 2025–26, with funds tied to performance.
  • Results by 2025–26:
    • about ₹16,400 crore had been released to cities;
    • 108 cities had lower annual PM10 than in 2017–18;
    • but only 14 cities met the national PM10 standard.
  • Criticisms: PM10 rather than the more harmful PM2.5 is tracked; much money goes to road-dust control; and regional airsheds (crop burning, power plants) lie outside city plans.
  • Delhi NCR shows the limits: winter smog there is driven by regional air pollution that no single city plan can control.
• Nagar Van Yojana, June 2020.
  • It aims at urban forests: 400 Nagar Vans and 200 Nagar Vatikas (2020–21 to 2024–25), funded from CAMPA.
  • 385 projects had been sanctioned by mid-2023.
• Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 (in force with its rules from 2018).
  • Money paid by user agencies for diverting forest land goes into a National Fund and State Funds in the public accounts.
  • 90% goes to the states, under the National and State CAMPA authorities. About ₹47,000 crore was handed to states in 2019.
  • Criticism: plantations on non-forest land and monocultures cannot replace natural forests lost to projects.
• Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), October 2022.
  • Proposed by India at COP26 (2021) and launched on 20 October 2022 at Ekta Nagar (Kevadia), Gujarat, with the UN Secretary-General.
  • It calls for “mindful and deliberate utilisation” in place of “mindless and destructive consumption”.
  • It covers seven themes: saving energy, saving water, saying no to single-use plastics, sustainable food systems, reducing waste, reducing e-waste and healthy lifestyles.
  • It shaped the G20 High-Level Principles on Lifestyles for Sustainable Development (2023) and a sustainable-lifestyles resolution at the UN Environment Assembly (2024).
• National Green Hydrogen Mission, January 2023.
  • Outlay of ₹19,744 crore, of which ₹17,490 crore is for the SIGHT incentive programme.
  • Goal: 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030, backed by about 125 GW of new renewable capacity. It would avoid about 50 million tonnes of CO₂ a year.
• MISHTI (Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes), June 2023.
  • It aims to restore about 540 sq km of mangroves across nine states and four UTs, in convergence with MGNREGS and CAMPA.
  • In July 2026 it was extended to 2029 with a total allocation of ₹600 crore.
• Amrit Dharohar, June 2023.
  • A three-year scheme for Ramsar sites, with four components: species and habitat conservation, nature tourism, wetland livelihoods and wetland carbon.
  • India’s Ramsar network reached 103 sites in October 2026, the largest in Asia and the third-largest in the world. Ramsar wetlands sit alongside protected areas as tools for the conservation of biodiversity.
• Green Credit Programme, October 2023.
  • The Green Credit Rules, 2023 were notified under the EPA 1986 and are administered by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE).
  • They cover eight activities: tree plantation, water management, sustainable agriculture, waste management, air pollution reduction, mangrove conservation, Ecomark-linked products, and sustainable buildings and infrastructure.
  • Revision in 2025: credits are now issued only after five years, when the plantation shows at least 40% canopy density, at one credit per surviving tree.
    • Credits can be used once for compensatory afforestation, CSR or other obligations, and are not freely tradable.
  • Criticism: counting trees is a poor proxy for ecosystem health; plantations on “degraded” open forest land can displace grassland and commons; and the line between voluntary credits and statutory compensatory afforestation is blurred.
• Ecomark Rules, September 2024.
  • They replace the 1991 Ecomark scheme, are run by the CPCB with the Bureau of Indian Standards, and are aligned with LiFE.
  • Their aim is credible eco-labels that curb greenwashing and steer demand towards resource-efficient products.
• EPR regimes.
  • Extended Producer Responsibility now covers plastic packaging (2022), e-waste (2022 rules), batteries (2022), waste tyres and used oil.
  • Each has an online registration and certificate-trading system. This makes producers pay for collection and recycling, a circular-economy form of the polluter pays principle.
• PARIVESH (2018).
  • A single-window online system for environment, forest, wildlife and CRZ clearances, now in an upgraded version.
  • It promises transparency and speed. Critics fear speed has been bought at the cost of scrutiny.
• Mass campaigns and new schemes:
  • Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam (launched 5 June 2024) is a nationwide tree-planting campaign.
  • The Aastha Van Sanrakshan Yojana (approved July 2026, ₹3,000 crore for 2026–27 to 2030–31) aims to protect about 15,000 sacred groves.
  • The National Coastal Mission 2.0 (₹767 crore, 2025–26 to 2030–31) works on coastal and marine ecosystems.
• Headline indicators:
  • India’s forest and tree cover is 25.17% of its geographical area (India State of Forest Report 2023).
  • In the FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025, India ranks 9th in forest area and 3rd in annual net forest gain.

Sustainable policy approaches to check degradation

• Economic growth raises pressure on resources. Policy guided by sustainable development must keep a growing economy tied to its ecological base.
  • Environmental protection is then part of development, not an obstacle to it: the natural resource base must not decline while real incomes and the quality of life rise.
• India’s policy framework uses nine broad approaches:

Approach	Rationale and instruments
Reducing poverty	Jobs, health, education, drinking water and sanitation; poverty is both cause and effect of degradation
Removing subsidies	Phase out subsidies on power, fertiliser, pesticides, fuel and irrigation water that reward waste
Clarifying property rights	Clear titles, tenure and recorded community rights prevent the tragedy of the commons
Market-based approaches	Taxes, permits, deposit-refunds and charges make the cost of resource use visible
Regulatory policies	Ambient and emission standards, quantity limits and technology mandates, applied to public and private sectors alike
Economic incentives	Variable fees, rebates and incentives that reward over-compliance
Trade policy	Cleaner industry siting at home; polluter pays and technology transfer in trade; no “race to the bottom”
Public participation	Education, eco-labels, disclosure, consumer movements; communities in afforestation, wildlife and sanitation
Global cooperation	Montreal, Basel, Rio, UNFCCC–Paris, CBD and CITES commitments

• Indian illustrations:
  • removing subsidies: rationalising free farm power, which drives groundwater mining in Punjab and Haryana;
  • property rights: recording community forest resource rights under the Forest Rights Act;
  • public participation: Biodiversity Management Committees and People’s Biodiversity Registers in every local body.

India and international environmental conventions

• India has been an active player in environmental diplomacy since Stockholm (1972).
  • Its consistent position is that environmental protection and development justice are inseparable.
  • Its signature themes are equity, CBDR, climate finance and technology transfer, and lately lifestyles (LiFE) and South–South initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance (2015).

Convention	Year	Objective	India’s role or status
Stockholm Conference	1972	First global environment conference; created UNEP	Indira Gandhi linked poverty and environment; Art. 253 laws followed
Ramsar Convention	1971 (in force 1975)	Wetland conservation and wise use	103 Ramsar sites (October 2026); Indore and Udaipur accredited Wetland Cities (2025)
CITES	1973 (1975)	Regulate trade in wild fauna and flora	Wild Life Act amended in 2022 to implement CITES schedules
Vienna Convention and Montreal Protocol	1985 / 1987	Protect the ozone layer	CFCs phased out; HCFC phase-out by 2030; Kigali Amendment (HFCs) ratified 2021
Basel Convention	1989 (1992)	Control hazardous waste movement	Relevant to ship-breaking at Alang
UNFCCC	1992 (1994)	Stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations	Non-Annex I party; National Communications and BURs; champions CBDR
CBD	1992 (1993)	Conservation, sustainable use, benefit-sharing	Biological Diversity Act 2002; 18 biosphere reserves, 13 in UNESCO’s network
Kyoto Protocol	1997 (2005)	Binding cuts for Annex I countries	No binding cuts for India; large CDM host
Cartagena Protocol	2000 (2003)	Safe transboundary movement of GMOs	GM regulation by GEAC; Bt cotton, Bt brinjal debates
Nagoya Protocol	2010 (2014)	Access and benefit-sharing	Ratified 2012; implemented through the Biological Diversity Act
Paris Agreement	2015 (2016)	Well below 2°C, pursue 1.5°C	Ratified October 2016; NDCs of 2015, 2022 and 2035
Kunming-Montreal GBF	2022	23 targets incl. 30×30	Updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2024) with 23 national targets

• COP30 (Belém, 2025) focused on implementation, adaptation finance and forests. India pressed for climate finance from developed countries, in line with the New Collective Quantified Goal agreed at Baku (2024), and against unilateral trade measures.
• For monsoon-dependent India the stakes are high, because man-made climate change is already shifting rainfall, heat and sea level.

Critical Evaluation of India’s Environmental Policy

Strengths

• Comprehensive legal and policy architecture.
  • From the EPA 1986 to the NGT Act 2010 and the EPR rules, India has one of the widest bodies of environmental law in the developing world.
  • It covers air, water, forests, wildlife, biodiversity, coasts and hazardous substances.
• Active judicial environmentalism. The Supreme Court and the NGT have created doctrine (absolute liability, public trust, precaution) and filled gaps left by the executive through public interest litigation.
• Renewable energy success. Non-fossil capacity crossed 50% in June 2025, five years ahead of the 2030 pledge, and passed 300 GW in 2026.
• Forest and wetland gains. India ranks 3rd in annual net forest gain (FAO 2025), and its Ramsar network has grown from 26 sites in 2014 to 103 in 2026.
• International leadership. India has framed LiFE, the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, and remains a leading voice for developing-country equity.
• A growing toolkit. The carbon market, EPR certificates, green credits and Ecomark show a move from pure command-and-control towards a modern instrument mix.

Weaknesses and challenges

• Implementation gap.
  • A wide gap separates policy ambition from enforcement on the ground. Standards are national, but enforcement rests with understaffed State Pollution Control Boards.
  • Industry lobbying and political interference weaken compliance. The partial decriminalisation of offences (2023–24) relies on penalties that boards must actually collect.
• Institutional fragmentation. Environmental governance is split among MoEFCC, CPCB, state boards, forest departments, the Commission for Air Quality Management and sectoral ministries, creating coordination failures and regulatory arbitrage.
• The development–environment tension.
  • The Forest (Conservation) Amendment, 2023 limited the Act mainly to recorded forests. In February 2024 the Supreme Court ordered states to keep applying the broad Godavarman definition while challenges are heard.
  • The draft EIA Notification, 2020, with its post-facto clearance provisions, drew strong opposition. The legality of ex post facto clearances has been fought out repeatedly in the courts.
• Inequality in burden-bearing. The poor, Adivasis, fishers and coastal communities bear the costs of degradation and sometimes of conservation (displacement from protected areas), while benefits of polluting growth go to urban and industrial interests.
• Weak integration with the SDGs. Plans and budgets do not consistently track environmental indicators, so policy stays siloed.
• Climate adaptation deficit. With extreme weather on almost every day of 2025, adaptation finance, heat action plans and climate-proof infrastructure lag far behind need.
• New market instruments are untested.
  • The Green Credit Programme has been revised twice and so far works mainly for tree plantation, with no clear valuation of ecosystem gains.
  • The carbon market is only starting to trade.
• Air quality remains the most visible failure. Most NCAP cities still exceed the PM10 standard, and North Indian cities stay far more polluted than southern ones because of geography, crop burning and coal.

The way forward

• A new National Environment Policy that brings climate, air quality, circular economy and adaptation into one updated framework, with the periodic reviews the 2006 policy promised.
• Stronger regulators: autonomous, well-staffed pollution control boards with continuous online monitoring and public data.
• Price signals: gradual removal of perverse subsidies, wider use of auctioned permits and a credible carbon price, with revenue recycled to the poor.
• Ecosystem-based and community approaches: recognised forest rights, empowered BMCs and gram sabhas, and restoration of natural ecosystems rather than monoculture plantations.
• Adaptation finance and SAPCC revision, tied to state budgets and to the NDC for 2035.
• Behaviour change backed by structure: LiFE works only when public transport, recycling systems and efficient products make the green choice the easy choice.