India and Environmental Protection: Strategies and Contributions

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but rapid growth comes with a heavy environmental price tag. Cities choked by smog, rivers carrying untreated sewage, mountains of unmanaged waste, and rising greenhouse gas emissions are all part of the same story. At the same time, the country has built an elaborate framework of policies, missions, and international commitments to address these problems. Understanding how a developing nation tries to protect its environment while lifting millions out of poverty tells us a lot about the politics of sustainability in the twenty-first century.

The environmental challenges 🔗

Before looking at solutions, it helps to be clear about the scale of the problem. The environmental pressures are diverse and interconnected, and most of them are getting worse as the population and economy expand.

Air pollution 🔗

Air quality is among the most visible crises. Dozens of cities regularly feature on lists of the most polluted urban areas in the world. The causes are a mix of vehicular exhaust, industrial emissions, construction dust, crop-residue burning, and the burning of solid waste. The problem is severe enough that the government identified 131 “non-attainment” cities that consistently fail to meet national ambient air quality standards.

Water pollution 🔗

Rivers are central to both daily life and religious practice, yet many are heavily polluted. Untreated sewage from rapidly growing towns is the single largest source of contamination, followed by industrial effluents. The gap between the sewage generated and the capacity to actually treat it remains large, which means a great deal of waste flows directly into water bodies.

Waste management and emissions 🔗

Solid waste is piling up faster than systems can handle it. The country generates over 62 million tonnes of waste a year, a figure projected to reach around 165 million tonnes by 2030. On top of this sit greenhouse gas emissions, largely driven by a power sector still dependent on coal. The power sector alone is responsible for roughly 40% of national greenhouse gas emissions, making it the central battleground for climate action.

Commitments under international agreements 🔗

Environmental policy is shaped heavily by global negotiations. As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which came into force in 1994, the country participates in the major treaties negotiated under it: the Kyoto Protocol, the Cancun Agreements, and the Paris Agreement.

From Kyoto to Paris 🔗

A consistent diplomatic position runs through all these negotiations. Under the principle of “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities,” developing countries argue that wealthy nations, which industrialised earlier and emitted far more historically, should carry a larger share of the burden. This is why, under the Kyoto Protocol, only developed countries took on binding emission-reduction targets. Developing nations took on voluntary pledges instead.

The approach shifted with the Paris Agreement of 2015, where every country submits its own Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), voluntary climate targets it sets for itself. The first set of these targets, submitted for the 2015-2030 period, included reducing the emission intensity of GDP and expanding non-fossil energy capacity.

The net-zero pledge 🔗

The most significant recent commitment came at the Glasgow COP26 summit in 2021. There, the Prime Minister pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, along with reaching 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030 and meeting half of energy needs from renewable sources. While 2070 is later than the 2050 targets set by Europe and North America, the pledge is enormous for a country of nearly 1.4 billion people. More recently, the Cabinet approved an updated NDC for the 2031-2035 period, raising ambition further while keeping the developmental priorities of “Viksit Bharat” at the centre.

Domestic policy responses 🔗

International commitments mean little without action at home. The domestic framework is built around a set of national missions and programmes that translate broad goals into specific projects.

The National Action Plan on Climate Change 🔗

The cornerstone document is the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), launched in 2008. It set out eight national missions covering solar energy, enhanced energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, the Himalayan ecosystem, a “Green India” afforestation drive, sustainable agriculture, and strategic knowledge on climate change. The logic of the plan is to pursue a low-carbon path without sacrificing economic growth, an attempt to balance two goals that often pull in opposite directions.

Tackling air and water pollution 🔗

To address the air crisis, the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched to improve air quality in the non-attainment cities. It works through city-specific action plans, an expanded monitoring network, controls on industrial emissions, and stricter enforcement of waste-burning bans. Progress is tracked publicly through a dedicated portal known as PRANA.

For rivers, the flagship effort is the Namami Gange Programme, an integrated mission launched in 2014 to clean and rejuvenate the Ganga. It funds sewage treatment infrastructure, riverfront development, surface cleaning, and industrial monitoring. The United Nations has recognised it as one of the top ecosystem restoration initiatives in the world.

Managing waste 🔗

Waste is governed through a series of rules covering solid, plastic, electronic, biomedical, construction, hazardous, and battery waste. A key tool here is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework, which makes manufacturers responsible for collecting and processing the waste their products generate. These rules work alongside large public campaigns such as Swachh Bharat to improve collection and processing.

The renewable energy push 🔗

If there is one area where progress has been striking, it is renewable energy. The transition away from fossil fuels is the single biggest lever for cutting emissions, and the numbers here are genuinely impressive.

Solar and wind at scale 🔗

Solar power sits at the heart of the strategy, driven by the National Solar Mission. The country reached a major milestone when, in 2025, half of its total installed electricity capacity came from non-fossil fuel sources, five years ahead of the 2030 target. Wind capacity, meanwhile, more than doubled over the last decade, reaching over 52 GW by 2025, according to official investment data.

Energy efficiency and new schemes 🔗

Generation is only half the picture. The National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency promotes measures like efficient appliances and industrial energy savings. Newer schemes such as PM Surya Ghar aim to put rooftop solar panels on one crore households, turning ordinary citizens into small-scale power producers. Green hydrogen and energy storage are emerging as the next frontier, with targets to produce five million tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030.

Carbon markets and global leadership 🔗

Beyond domestic programmes, the country participates in global carbon markets and has tried to shape international climate governance, not just respond to it.

Participation in carbon markets 🔗

Under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, projects could earn carbon credits by reducing emissions and sell them to developed countries. The country was historically one of the largest hosts of such projects. Domestically, an emissions trading scheme and a carbon credit market are being developed to put a price on carbon and incentivise cleaner production. To raise green finance, the government has also issued Sovereign Green Bonds to fund environmentally friendly projects.

The International Solar Alliance 🔗

Perhaps the clearest example of environmental diplomacy is the International Solar Alliance (ISA), launched jointly with France at the 2015 Paris summit. It is a coalition of sun-rich countries aiming to scale up solar deployment and mobilise investment across the developing world. The alliance allows a developing nation to position itself as a leader on climate, championing “South-South cooperation” rather than simply taking instructions from wealthier countries. It reflects a broader foreign policy strategy: using environmental leadership to build influence on the global stage.

The central tension: growth versus sustainability 🔗

Running through all of this is one unresolved tension. As a developing country, the priority remains lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty, which requires energy, industry, and infrastructure, all of which strain the environment. The diplomatic insistence on “differentiated responsibility” flows directly from this reality.

The challenge is visible in the energy sector. Even as renewables surge, coal still provides the bulk of electricity, and there is no firm coal phase-out plan. Analysts at the Climate Action Tracker note that insufficient energy storage, growing power demand, and continued coal dependence all constrain deeper decarbonisation, even after the non-fossil capacity milestone was reached. Balancing the immediate need for affordable energy against the long-term need for a stable climate is the defining policy puzzle, and it has no easy answer.

What do you think? Is the principle of “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities” a fair basis for global climate action, or does it let developing nations delay urgent decarbonisation? And when affordable energy for the poor clashes with cutting emissions, which goal should a developing country prioritise?

References

1. https://www.whalesbook.com/news/English/environment/NGTs-Strict-Rules-Drive-Boom-in-Indias-Environmental-Sector/69cd11363f30946a723f5b83
2. https://dst.gov.in/climate-change-programme
3. https://flow.db.com/topics/sustainable-finance/india-s-path-to-net-zero
4. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2245209&reg=3&lang=1
5. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1909910&reg=3&lang=2
6. https://nmcg.nic.in/NamamiGanga.aspx
7. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2209478&reg=3&lang=1
8. https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/renewable-energy
9. https://www.ibef.org/industry/renewable-energy
10. https://isa.int/membership
11. https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/india/