'India's climate policy pushing natural resources to a breaking point': Expert urges media to address the crisis

By A Representative 

As the world marked another World Environment Day on June 5, 2025, Shankar Sharma, a prominent Power & Climate Policy Analyst based in Sagara, Western Ghats, Karnataka, has issued a compelling appeal to national media houses. Highlighting the escalating threats of climate change and environmental degradation, Sharma urges the media to shift focus from political controversies to critical issues like sustainability, pollution, and climate policy, which he warns are pushing India’s natural resources to a breaking point.

In his appeal, Sharma emphasizes the dire warnings from global scientific bodies such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Health Organization (WHO), and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Quoting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ stark warning from June 2024, Sharma reiterates: *“The battle to secure the planet’s future will be won or lost in the next 18 months.”* This critical timeframe, now reduced to less than a year, underscores the urgency of addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

Sharma points to alarming statistics: India’s air, water, and soil are heavily polluted, with the government failing to tackle the crisis effectively, as noted in a recent book. A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report highlights a staggering 73% decline in global wildlife populations over the past 50 years, while India faces risks to 60 million people from rising sea levels. Additionally, the country’s projected rise to the third-largest electricity consumer by 2050, driven by conventional and large-scale renewable energy projects, poses unsustainable demands on land, water, and other resources.

Citing specific concerns, Sharma notes that between 2014 and 2018, the National Wildlife Board cleared 500 projects in forests and Protected Areas, contributing to the loss of 120,000 hectares of primary forest in just five years. He also highlights that 87% of environmental clearance proposals were approved between July 2014 and April 2020, often for projects with viable, less destructive alternatives like rooftop solar and battery energy storage systems.

“Every dollar spent on nature restoration leads to at least $9 of economic benefits,” Sharma quotes, emphasizing the economic and ecological value of sustainable practices. Yet, he warns, India’s continued reliance on coal, hydro, and nuclear projects, alongside large-scale solar and wind farms, is accelerating environmental devastation. For instance, the government’s plan to add 80,000 MW of coal-based capacity and 42,014 MW of hydro capacity by 2031-32 ignores global calls to phase out such high-impact projects.

Sharma criticizes the lack of a cohesive national energy policy and the absence of meaningful discourse on India’s climate action plan, with the net-zero target of 2070 deemed “too little, too late.” He laments the limited engagement of civil society, noting that representations to authorities like the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Supreme Court have yielded little impact.

Calling on media houses to lead a national dialogue, Sharma proposes state-level discussions involving civil society groups to devise sustainable development strategies. “Without the effective involvement of various sections of our country, through the national media houses, it will be impossible to arrest the run-away consequences of climate change,” he warns.

As India grapples with polluted rivers, unhealthy air quality in the National Capital Region, and dwindling forests—currently at 21% of land area against a national target of 33%—Sharma’s appeal underscores the media’s pivotal role in driving public pressure and policy reform. With time running out, his message is clear: only a unified, sustainable approach can secure a livable future for India’s people and ecosystems.