How urgent is India’s budget on climate change?

Why read this story?

Editor's note: What a day to start this newsletter. Even the Union budget now includes climate change and other “green” endeavours as listed priorities. This was unimaginable even five years ago, when the environment and its role in the budget (and our consciousness) was limited to good-looking animals, the Ganga river, or as a roadblock to the economy’s animal spirits (pun intended?). All that continues, but now we have growing recognition that environment and climate issues are critical and closely linked to the economy, and require budgetary support. The goal of all climate action is to reach a point where climate change ceases to be an issue. The path towards this future, and all the action that entails, is now known simply as the ‘transition’, a euphemism for large-scale changes to our economic systems and society (like climate ‘change’ is actually about the gradual collapse of society). This newsletter is named after the growing urgency to make this transition happen. Every decision made from now matters. According to the Climate Action Tracker, India’s actions so far are “highly insufficient” from a global …