Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals from Indian Perspective: Efforts and Challenges

AbstractAnthropogenic climate change is an off shoot of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Rise in global atmospheric concentration of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) have several cascading effects such as increase in global mean surface air temperature, incidents of extreme events such as droughts and floods, and erratic monsoon rainfall. India is a member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and has actively participated in all the global deliberations on the issue. It has carefully crafted its climate policies to realize the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). Climate change has reinforced the fact that environmental challenges know no boundaries. The adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), is a testimony to the fact that the world has realised that the actions we take now have repercussions in the future. The SDGs have changed the trajectory of development from being economy-centric to holistic by integrating environmental and social well-being as integral part of development. For developing country like India, the choice between economic growth and sustainable development is difficult. India needs a development plan such that there is uncompromised economic growth with minimal ecological footprint. The task though daunting, can be achieved through integrated efforts from scientists, society, policy makers and government.