Shifting Discourses of Climate Change in India


Our article in the journal Climatic Change, entitled Shifting Discourses of Climate Change in India, by Jagadish Thaker and Anthony Leiserowitz, investigates the factors driving the shifts in official positions on international negotiations and in elite discourses using 25 interviews of Indian climate policy elites, including scientists, energy policy experts, government officials, journalists, business leaders, and advocates, in addition to a content analysis of articles published in Economic and Political Weekly (a prominent Indian policy journal), and reports published by the government and other organizations. Our analysis suggests that India’s growing concerns about energy access and security, vulnerability to climate change impacts, and the international leadership aspirations of the Indian government, along with the emergence of new actors and institutions in the climate space, has led to a plurality of discourses, with significant implications for India’s climate change policies.