Climate Change Environmental Justice and Health: A Critical Study of the Legal and Policy Framework in India

Author(s): Brajpal

Abstract:

Climate change has moved from being primarily an environmental and developmental concern to a constitutional, distributive-justice and public-health challenge. India is particularly exposed because climatic risks interact with poverty, informal employment, unequal access to health services, ecological degradation, rapid urbanisation and dependence on climate-sensitive livelihoods. This paper critically examines whether India's existing legal and policy framework is capable of responding to the combined demands of climate protection, environmental justice and the right to health. It analyses the constitutional foundations of environmental protection, including Articles 14, 19 and 21, Article 47, Article 48A and Article 51A(g), together with the judicial development of the right to a healthy environment. It evaluates the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, Water Act 1974, Air Act 1981, Forest (Conservation) framework, Biological Diversity Act 2002 as amended, National Green Tribunal Act 2010, Energy Conservation Act 2001 and related regulatory instruments. It also considers the National Action Plan on Climate Change, State Action Plans, the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health, disaster and heat-action mechanisms, and India's international commitments under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement. Particular attention is given to the Supreme Court's 2024 decision in M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India, which expressly recognised a constitutional right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change. The paper argues that India has developed a substantial but fragmented climate-governance architecture. Its principal weakness is not the total absence of law, but the absence of an integrated, rights-based climate statute capable of allocating duties, setting measurable targets, ensuring participation, protecting vulnerable communities and providing effective remedies. The paper proposes a framework based on climate accountability, inter-generational equity, just transition, health impact assessment, climate-resilient public infrastructure, stronger local governance, transparent climate finance and enforceable procedural rights.

keywords:
Climate change; environmental justice; right to health; Article21; climate litigation; National Green Tribunal; environmental governance; just transition; India; constitutional law.

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