Policy Storylines in Indian Climate Politics: Opening New Political Spaces?

Abstract

With this paper I consider the role of diffuse nonstate and subnational actors working together in networks in Indian climate politics. The Indian government has maintained several core principles in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations since the emergence of climate change as a major international issue, and until recently the engagement of nonstate and subnational actors has been limited. However, new networked political actors are emerging that are widely linked into transnational networks, often supported by external funding and bringing new, diverse organisations into the debate. I argue that to understand their role and significance we must be more attentive to the spatiality of the policy process and must reconceptualise the relationship between nonstate actors and the state. The international arena is not the only area of climate politics, or necessarily the most significant, and attention to the role of local politics could develop a more rooted understanding of Indian climate politics.