In 2024, the field is set for some of the most crucial election contests in recent times. More than four billion people will head to polls across 64 nations. Almost a fourth of them will vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in India. Elections in the time of a climate crisis, however, complicate issues.
This year’s political action unfolds against an unprecedented backdrop of environmental turbulence. 2023 was the hottest year on record in at least 173 years, and global average temperatures, for the first time, crossed the 1.5° Celsius warming threshold. India houses the largest population exposed to extreme weather events, a proportion of people that has increased since 2010. Climate change is moving from the periphery to capture electoral interest as the earth shows visible signs of impact, says Aarti Khosla, founder of Climate Trends. Parties have in turn weaved green policies, renewable energy targets and pollution-free mandates into their election manifestos.
Others, however, note the churn is slow and separate, affecting people but not always influencing outcomes. The Hindu looks at how Indian voters perceive climate change, where it ranks in their list of electoral concerns, and the tide of ‘green’ agendas in India’s 2024 political wars.
