Referent object, securitising actors and the audience: the climate change threat and the securitisation of development in India

Abstract

Climate change issue has evolved as a central policy of the Government of India. The crux of the policy is centered on the economic development. Internationally, India has been consistently resisting the developed country’s climate policy as the policy might threaten New Delhi’s economic development prospect. However, the recent evidence of climate change threat to the economic development compelled political leaders to design the domestic climate policy—the National Action Plan on Climate Change—which is consistent with the country’s economic development. Considering the global climate diplomacy, this paper examines the evolution of India’s domestic climate change-development discourse and how climate change has been constructed as a major threat at the highest political level that securitises the country’s economic development. The threat discourse is explained from the standpoint of the securitisation theory to explore three core constituents of India’s domestic climate policy: the referent object, securitising actors and the audience.

Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to the Journal’s Editors Lucia J. Linares and Lucas de Oliveira Paes for taking interest in the topic and their academic support in giving me ample time to improve the paper. More importantly, I am immensely grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their comprehensive, critical and terrific comments on the earlier draft of this paper. I am deeply indebted to Devika Sharma, Surinder Mohan and Dibyajyoti Bhuyan as my academic discussion with them helped me to develop the paper coherently.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Declaration of the Leaders, The Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change, <http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/2009laquila/2009-mef.pdf>, accessed 7 April 2010

2 United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) ‘UN 20-rear review: Earthquakes and Tsunamis kill more people while climate change is driving up economic losses from disasters’, <https://www.preventionweb.net/news/view/61118>, accessed 10 October 2018

3 ‘Bangladeshi migrants pose threat to Internal Security: Report’, <https://www.rediff.com/news/2008/apr/18bdesh.htm>, accessed 10 October 2018

4 This information is available at TERI’s website, <http://www.teriin.org/profile/ajay-mathur>, accessed on 14 December 2018

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anjan Kumar Sahu

Anjan Kumar Sahu is an Assistant Professor in Central University of Rajasthan, India. He has PhD from the University of Delhi. His area of specialisation is security studies and climate change with reference to securitisation theory. His research paper on climate change has been published in Asian Politics and Policy. Email: [email protected]