12. South Asia

In 2012, the streets of India were filled with wide-ranging protests, from a movement against corruption to outrage over crimes against women, and people repeatedly sent signals to the government that they demand justice. This bold mood characterized the environmental sector as well, manifested domestically in the rising number of challenges to environmental clearances for development and infrastructure projects. Courts in India, especially the National Green Tribunal, continued to spearhead efforts to protect natural resources, while at the same time crusading to ensure people’s access to environmental justice and access to decision making. Internationally, India continued its role as an ambassador for equity and common but differentiated responsibility and successfully championed these tenets at various global gatherings including the climate negotiations in Doha and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio + 20). India, currently the world’s fourth largest emitter of global warming gases (after China, the United States, and the European Union (EU)), continued to influence international climate policy in 2012. India hosted the tenth Ministerial meeting of BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India, and China), which culminated in a joint statement that welcomed the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for developed nations, underscored the importance of operationalizing the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and emphasized that key issues such as equity, trade, and technology-related intellectual property rights (IPRs) should remain the cornerstones of international climate negotiations. Over the course of the year, India participated in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth BASIC ministerial meetings and helped shape the BASIC group’s position at the UNFCCC conference in Doha. BASIC called on developed nations to raise the ambition of their emissions reductions, accelerate the work of the GCF, oppose unilateral measures on international aviation or shipping, and reaffirm the centrality of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.