New Report Highlights Climate Focus and Gaps in Indian Parliament Over Past Decade

Over the past decade, the Indian Parliament maintained a steady focus on climate change by setting ambitious goals and announcing national targets, though financial and institutional dimensions received less attention. A new report titled 'Climate on the Floor: India's Parliamentary Discourse on Environment since the Paris Agreement' was released by the Centre for Financial Accountability on October 2. It analysed questions raised in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha between December 2015 and December 2025, alongside parliamentary debates, following India's adoption of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Climate Toll

During the first nine months of 2025, 4,064 lives were lost to extreme weather events in India, marking a 48 percent rise in deaths over the past four years, according to a joint report by the Centre for Science and Environment and Down To Earth. These events affected 9.47 million hectares of crops, destroyed nearly 100,000 houses, and killed approximately 58,982 animals. At least 18 states and Union Territories recorded their highest number of extreme-weather days since 2022.

Parliamentary Focus

Between December 2015 and December 2025, there were 8,702 parliamentary questions addressing climate and environmental themes, with 2,938 questions focused on clean energy and decarbonisation. Under the Paris Agreement, India committed to reduce the emissions intensity of its gross domestic product by 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, and to achieve about 50 percent of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by the same year. By June 2025, at least 50 percent of India's installed electricity capacity reached 242.78 gigawatts from non-fossil sources, five years ahead of schedule. However, as of October 2025, 42,626 megawatts of renewable energy capacity remained stranded because state distribution companies did not sign Power Sale Agreements due to financial and revenue concerns.

Context

Parliamentary scrutiny relies heavily on central data availability, yet questions regarding climate displacement, heatwave mortality among informal workers, and forest loss have often met with responses stating that information is unavailable centrally. Without consolidated data, tracking the exact scale of environmental problems and assessing the adequacy of government responses becomes more challenging.