Editor
– (Amitabh Pandey)
Grand pleges to save the climate on stage, and silence in Parliament.
In India, every leader expresses concern about climate change. They pose for photos, plant saplings, and deliver speeches at seminars. But when it comes to the country’s biggest panchayat – the Parliament – that concern fails to translate into questions.
A new report by the Centre for Financial Accountability (CenFA), titled ‘Climate on the Floor’, has exposed this duality.
This report is not an allegation, but an account of 10 years. It is an analysis of 8,702 questions asked in Parliament from 2015 to 2025, after the Paris Agreement. It has been authored by researcher Hajira Puthige and was released by former Environment Minister and MP Jairam Ramesh, in the presence of climate expert Soumya Dutta, environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta, and Maansi Verma of Maadhyam.
What does the account say?
1. Only 3 out of 100 questions on environment
In the last 10 years, only 3 out of every 100 questions asked in Parliament were on climate and environment. That means 96.7% of questions didn’t even touch the issue.
2. Talk on energy, silence on money
Of the few questions that were asked, 37.7% were limited to shiny topics like solar-wind and decarbonisation. But on the most crucial issue for fighting climate change – Climate Finance – only 0.3% questions were asked. Parliament has remained almost silent on where the money will come from and how it will be distributed.
3. Climate remembered only when floods come
The sharpest finding of the report is that MPs raised questions on climate only when there was a major flood, drought, heatwave or landslide in the country. In other words, our Parliament is not keeping a continuous watch on climate, but is waiting for a disaster. Experts call this ‘crisis-driven scrutiny’.
Where is the precious time going?
This is when India is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. This year itself we have seen everything from landslides in Kerala to record heatwaves in North India. From a farmer’s crop to a city’s water supply, everything is being impacted.
Yet, the precious time of Parliament is lost in disruptions and issues of lesser importance.
This report holds up a mirror to us. It doesn’t ask what the government is doing; it asks what our elected representatives are asking the government?
And if they don’t ask now, when will they?
Read the full report: https://cenfa.org/climate-on-the-floor/
