Environmental Prospects
The 21st Century is the age of Globalization with Free Trade Agreements. This is the century of evolution and development. From the technological advancements in the various branches of science and technology to superfast high speed communication and computer systems, we are developing and evolving at a rapidly fast speed. However, in this fast changing world, we humans are critically endangered or hazarding the natural resources at very high speed. The climate pattern manifests variation, depletion of natural resources, scarcity of water, adulteration in the organic material, natural calamities like Earthquake, landslide, cyclones, tsunami and volcanic eruption etc, are very common in present climate. Even after having many treaties, protocols, agreements and conferences; the scenario of adverse climate change does not change at all. One such International Agreement related to climate change is the Paris Agreement signed in the year of 2016 in France. The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.
The International laws of environmental related issues and to held accountable the states for causing Environmental pollution was raised in the well known environment laws related Case of Tail smelter; It was a Environmental disputes between US and Canada, The United States (P) sued Canada for damages and requested an injunction for air pollution in the state of Washington caused by the Trail Smelter, a Canadian firm with Canadian citizenship (D), wherein it was held by the international court that it is the responsibility of the State to protect other states against harmful act by individuals from within its jurisdiction at all times. No state has the right to use or permit the use of the territory in a manner as to cause injury by fumes in or to the territory of another or the properties or persons therein.
India is a very diverse country, here we can find various races, religions, ethnicities and classes in living beings, diverse flora and fauna at different places and different climate conditions can be associated with respect to India. To protect the Environment and mitigate adverse climatic conditions, the government of India has taken various measures in the form of formulating environment friendly policies and enacting laws in respect of climate change.
Earlier we had many laws to safeguard different aspects of climate change; like the Air pollution Act 1974, Water pollution Act etc. However, with a rapidly changing environment prospective it was needed to have a broader law which preserved the wide amplitude of the environment and amalgamated most of the ambitions of Environment Protection. Hence, the Environment Protection Act came into force with effect from 19 November 1986. Here we are going to discuss the environment act in a very brief and concise manner. After the hazardous Bhopal Gas Tragedy occurred in the year of 1984 and various incidents of climate adversity, India needed a concise law in the very aspect of environment protection. Thus the Environment Protection Act 1986 came into effect. The tenets of this law can also be said to have been inspired by the United Nation conference on the Human Rights which was held at Stockholm, in the year of 1972 and which is also known as Stockholm Conference, 1972.
Also as per Article 48A of the Indian Constitution, which is the directive principle of state policy, it reads as the State shall endeavor to protect and improve the Environment and safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country. Likewise as per Article 51A (g) of the Indian constitution it was made a fundamental duty that Every Citizen shall protect the National Environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures.
The Environment Protection Act protects human beings, other living creatures, plants and property from Environment Hazards. In the case of Subhash kumar Vs State of Bihar the hon’ble apex court averred the Right to get pollution free water and air is fundamental right enshrined Under Article 21 of the Indian constitution; which primarily talks about the rights of life and personal liberty of citizen of India and the Indian courts and continuously increase the amplitude of Article 21 with respect to Environment laws. In this Environment statute to mitigate the environment adverse effect various pollution related principles have been formed by the supreme court of India in various cases and the renowned Mahesh Chand Mehta; who is considered as the protectorate of the Environment has helped in the affirmative way in the enactments of the followings principles related to the environment. One such principle is , The ‘polluter pays’ principle is the commonly accepted practice that those who produce pollution should bear the costs of managing it to prevent damage to human health or the environment. The polluter pays principle is part of a set of broader principles to guide sustainable development worldwide popularly known as the 1992 Rio Declaration. The polluter pay principle was first introduced in India in the year of 1996 formally formed in the case of Indian Council of Environment Legal Action Vs. Union of India. The Hon’ble Supreme court decreed that the polluters must pay a penalty for causing pollution, which will be used for improving the environmental and residential conditions for the inhabitants of the regions affected from that environment degradation. In Vellore Citizens welfare Forum v. UOI (1996); the hon’ble supreme court of India formed another Environment Principal known as Precautionary Principle and concept of burden of proof in Environmental matters also evolved by the court. This principle averred that Once an activity is considered harmful to the environment it should be stopped immediately. If there is a strong suspicion that a certain activity may have environmentally harmful consequences, it is better to control that activity at present rather than to wait for irrefutable scientific proof. Likewise another principle related to the environment is Public Trust Doctrine, which primarily rests on the principle that certain limited or precious resources like air, sea, waters, wildlife and the forests have such a great importance to the people as a whole that it would be wholly unjustified to make them a subject of private ownership. Which means these things do not belong exclusively to any particular nation or individual and they should be preserved and protected for the future generations so that the living beings continually evolve and survive. This doctrine was first mentioned in M.C. Mehta v Kamal Nath & Ors. case where the Supreme Court applied public trust with regard tohttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1COWhNFKAwk20YS-H30ozmc2SfjC5M5WvzbYCSJsEPMU/edit the protection and preservation of natural resources. In this case, the State Government granted lease of riparian forestland to a private company for commercial purposes. According to this principle, the state is under the obligation to protect, preserve and prevent the natural resources and environment from overexploitation and degradation. The principle of Strict Liability and Absolute Liability is one more such principle that talks about the protection of the environment. The Principal is Strict liability evolved from the case of Ryland’s Vs. Fletcher 1868. In India, the rule of absolute liability evolved in the case of MC Mehta v Union of India, 1987. Strict liability is one of the many kinds of Tort that came into existence to ensure the imposition of liability on an individual or an entity in case of its hazardous acts leading to damages or losses to the environment and public at large, even if these acts were unintentional and caused negative consequences to the environment. Hence, strict liability is also called the No-Fault Liability. This doctrine can be described as anyone who retains dangerous chemicals on their property is accountable for any errors made if those substances somehow escape and cause harm. Here the burden of proof is always on the defendant to show why he is not guilty.
There are other acts which are also related to achieve the environment sustainability in india viz; The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 designed to conserve plant and animal speciesThe Biological Diversity Act, 2002 to protect biological diversity and to provide a system for the fair distribution of the advantages and benefits brought by the utilization of traditional biological resources.
The Republic of India has many targets and goals to achieve environmental sustainability. India is presently holding the largest population of the world and it is impossible to attain environment sustainability without the two giant powers of Asia that is India and China; which are progressively developing economically and financially and in respect of that these countries presently focussing largely on the attainment of growth and development rather than to ecological viable. However, India is equally balancing the growth and sustainable environment. The Prime Minister of India has promised to cut its emissions to net zero by 2070 at the conference of parties-26(COP) summit. India’s renewable energy targets have steadily become more ambitious, from 175 GW by 2022 declared at Paris, to 450 GW by 2030 at the UN Climate Summit, and now 500 GW by 2030, announced at COP26. India has also announced the target of 50% installed power generation capacity from non-fossil energy sources by 2030.
Conclusively it can be reiterated that to achieve the sustainable development goals set out in Paris climate action plan and to develop countries economically keeping in mind the environment sustainability and to become net zero effect nations that carbon free world, it is continuously required to achieve the environmental target set out in different treaties and evolving new techniques that is friendly to the environment in this science and tech world.
