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Subnational Diplomacy in Climate Action Plans of Border States in India

Subnational action on climate change in India is driven by the State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCC). The idea behind the SAPCCs was to decentralize action beyond the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) especially with regards to the State and Union List. In India, like most other nations, diplomacy and international negotiations remain exclusively in the realm of the central government. But effective response to climate change would require Indian states to engage in bilateral negotiations at least with countries of the same physiography. This should help in exchange and development of technology and creating databases on risk assessment as climate change goes beyond spatial borders and is a shared security issue. The rationale behind the SAPCCs also opens up furthering of the scope of sub-national diplomacy. This article examines the SAPCCs of the Border States and their missions on strategic knowledge of climate change as an example in order to suggest the need for greater subnational action in the form of climate change diplomacy. Relying mostly on document analysis this paper explores whether engagement in subnational diplomacy would maintain the constitutional spirit while pushing the limits of subnational action for climate change in India. It aims to explore climate policy in India’s federal system to understand the extended role the subnational Indian states therein can play.