PIL to declare an Climate Emergency in India

THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE PETITIONER ABOVE NAMED

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH

This Writ Petition is filed in public interest by Advocate, Mr. ……………………………under Article 32 of the Constitution of India in furtherance of the rights of citizens and the general public and more particularly in furtherance of right to clean and sustainable Environment which is a pre-requisite to their fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
ARRAY OF PARTIES
The Petitioner is a citizen of India and is a practicing Advocate before various Courts of India. That Petitioner is interested in safeguarding the interest of public at large and ventilating the grievances of public regarding the issues of public importance, in the exercise of his duty in terms of Article 51 A (g) of the Constitution and with a view to promote the Rule of Law, has preferred the instant Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India in Public Interest. He has a special interest for preservation and conservation of Environment. The Respondent is The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, who is responsible for planning, promoting, coordinating, and overseeing the implementation of environmental and forestry programmes in the country who is the necessary and proper parties to decide the issues.
India is a signatory to the historic Paris Agreement, an international treaty to combat climate change and limit rise in global temperatures through Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC). INDC lay out the blueprint for tackling climate change and emphasized eighty key goals framed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). IPCC is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, IPCC scientists volunteer their time to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The Petitioner seeks a writ of mandamus from this Hon’ble Court for relief prayed in the prayer clauses and also directions on Climate Emergency as court intervention is required for action on immediate and national importance impacting the public at large. This Writ Petition is filed as Pro Bono for enforcement of the public interest, to advance the rule of law.

That This Hon’ble Court in numerous matters elaborated the scope of Article 21 of the constitution of India, which deals with protection of life and personal liberty - No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by Law. In the matter of Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra Vs State of U.P. 1985 AIR 652, 1985 SCR (3) 169, This Court has held that the right to unpolluted environment and preservation and protection of nature’s gifts has also been conceded under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The Constitutional provisions provide the bed-rock for the framing of environmental legislations in the country. Article 48-A of the Constitution deals with the Protection and Improvement of Environment and Safeguarding of Forests and Wildlife – The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country. On the basis of the said provisions, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (as amended in 1986) have been enacted by the Parliament. That also in the case of Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India and Others (1996) It was observed that some of the salient principles of "Sustainable Development", as culled-out from Brundtland Report and other international documents, are Inter-Generational Equity, Use and Conservation of Nature Resources, Environmental Protection, the Precautionary Principle, Polluter Pays principle, Obligation to assist and cooperate, Eradication of Poverty and Financial Assistance to the developing countries. We are, however, of the vies that "The Precautionary Principle" and "The Polluter Pays" principle are essential features of "Sustainable Development".

Petitioner has not filed any other petition either in this Hon’ble Court or in any other Indian Court seeking same or similar directions.
Petitioner has no personal interests, individual gain, private motive or oblique reasons in filing this petition. It is not guided by the gain of any other individual, institution or body.
There is no civil, criminal or revenue litigation, involving the Petitioner, which has or could have legal nexus, with the issue involved in this petition. It is totally bona-fide.

FACTS THAT CONSTITUTE CAUSE OF ACTION

Climate disaster is already part and parcel of Indian life. This year alone, the city of Chennai underwent a Day Zero, where taps were shut off because reservoirs were almost out of water and international media has covered the same. Plenty of other Indian cities are experiencing severe water shortages, which portend environmental-linked violence. Heat waves have been more severe than ever this year, with summer temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Dozens have died of heatstroke just this summer, and the heat waves have particularly tragic effects for rural farmers, with some research suggesting extreme heat is positively correlated with higher suicide rates. The state of Kerala, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh was pummeled by monsoon flooding this year killing over more than hundreds of people. Air pollution reached emergency levels of toxicity in cities like Delhi. While the occurrence of natural hazards such as landslides, droughts and floods is projected to go up, their impact depends on the level of exposure such as presence of people and infrastructure in areas that could be adversely affected or climate-sensitive livelihood of people. NASA has a series of web pages which unpack global warming, including looking at the evidence behind it.
Climate Change, is not 'just another' environmental problem. Climate risk is interplay of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the earth we plant in, the food we eat, and the beauty and diversity of nature that nourishes our psychological well-being – our very health – all are being corrupted and compromised. We have only been significantly aware of it for the last twenty or so years and that now its for real. Now people understand that action on climate is necessary for the world and the future, yes, but also for them right now. Rising sea levels, increasing number of extreme weather events, urban floods, changing temperature and rainfall patterns are the impacts of climate change being felt in many parts of the India and not just coastal areas or hilly regions. For preparing communities and people to meet the challenge arising out of such changes, information specific to a state or even district is needed because such impacts of climate change are not uniform hence declaration of Climate Emergency is utmost necessary.
Expert says Global species are going extinct at rates up to 1,000 times the background rates typical of Earth’s past. A “biological annihilation” of wildlife in recent decades means that we may be heading for the Sixth Mass Extinction in Earth’s history. Animal populations are dwindling and disappearing on land and in the oceans. Globally, the latest Living Planet Index estimates an average decline of 60% in the population size of thousands of vertebrate species around the world between 1970 and 2014 – with even faster declines in freshwater populations. More than a quarter of approximately 100,000 species assessed by the IUCN are threatened with extinction; 40% of all amphibians, 25% of all mammals, 34% of all conifers, 14% of all birds, 33% of reef-building corals, 31% of sharks and rays. It is estimated that a million species of animal and plant are already threatened with extinction because of human action. A review of the most comprehensive studies conducted used a global index for invertebrate abundance and estimated a 45% decline over the last four decades. Many birds feed on insects, so insect declines have already led to drastically fewer birds everywhere. But it isn’t only the birds that depend on insects. Insects pollinate many of our crops, help fertilise the soil they grow in, and help control outbreaks of crop pests and of organisms that cause disease in people and livestock. If insects are in trouble, so are we. According to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty, 1.5°C of global warming could expose 500 million people to water poverty, 36 million people to food insecurity because of lower crop yields, and 4.5 billion people to heat waves.
Experts says Global rise of CO2 emissions per year from fossil fuels and land-use change, which have shown no sign of slowing down. Carbon dioxide concentrations are at a record high of 411 parts per million (ppm) (an increase of over 45% on pre-industrial levels). Concentrations are now at the highest levels in at least the last 3 million years (i.e. since before modern humans had even evolved on this planet). To stabilize temperatures emissions need to reach net-zero. Carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas scientists are concerned about, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) all cause significant additional heating. Methane, in particular, is the second largest contributor to global heating after CO2. Each tonne emitted can cause approximately 28 times as much warming as CO2 over a 20 year period, but a massive 84 times as much over 100 years. The oil and gas industry, waste sector and agriculture contribute heavily to the amount of methane in our atmosphere. We can prevent the millions of deaths from climate change if proper awareness is made by declaration of Climate Emergency among all people of India.
The current water crisis in Tamil Nadu is a wake-up call. Experts says Nearly two lakh cattle in the state have been reported dead for want of water. Acute water shortage is a reality in many Indian towns, and the crisis is now reaching mega cities. As global temperatures rise we see an increase in extreme weather events such as heatwaves. That expert study shows that deadly heat waves may limit habitability of one of the world’s most populous regions in the world. Overall, climate change is already having severe impacts and making extreme weather more likely across the world. The global water cycle is intensifying due to climate change. A 2018 UN report highlights that at present, an estimated 3.6 billion people (nearly half the global population) live in areas that are potentially water-scarce at least one month per year. Rising temperatures will melt at least one-third of the Himalayan glaciers by the end of the century even if we limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Melting glaciers in both the Andes and the Himalayas threatens the water supplies of hundreds of millions of people living downstream. The United Nations says we could have just 11 years left to limit a climate change catastrophe. The effects of climate and ecological disruption that we are experiencing now are nothing compared to what could come. Catastrophic effects on human society and the natural world may spiral out of control if this climate and ecological emergency is not addressed in time.
In 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists including the majority of living science Nobel laureates, penned the “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” calling on humankind to curtail environmental destruction and warning that “a great change in our stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided.” The authors of the 1992 declaration feared that humanity was pushing Earth’s ecosystems beyond their capacities to support the web of life. They described how we are fast approaching many of the limits of what the biosphere can tolerate without substantial and irreversible harm. They implored that we cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and phase out fossil fuels, reduce deforestation, and reverse the trend of collapsing biodiversity. In 2017, Over 15,000 scientists signed a new and even more urgently worded letter which warned that “To prevent widespread misery and catastrophic biodiversity loss, humanity must practice a more environmentally sustainable alternative to business as usual. This prescription was well articulated by the world’s leading scientists 25 years ago, but in most respects, we have not heeded their warning. Soon it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory, and time is running out. We must recognize, in our day-to-day lives and in our governing institutions, that Earth with all its life is our only home.”
In April 2019, 11,000+ scientists strengthened the alert with a ‘World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency’ stating, “Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any great existential threat, Based on this obligation and the data presented, they proclaim a clear and unequivocal declaration that a climate emergency exists on planet Earth.” Protesters lay themselves out like corpses near Manhattan’s City Hall, dozens blocked traffic on Germany’s Oberbaum and Jannowitz Bridges, adults and children doused the streets outside the Hague’s government offices with fake blood, in London activists glued themselves to trains attached themselves to fences and blocked the city’s busiest traffic routes. This disruption was an effort to get the U.K. government to declare a climate emergency, reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, and form a Citizen’s Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice. That till date United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and France have all declared climate emergencies.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at MONACO on 25 September 2019 has published Special Report highlights the urgency of prioritizing timely, ambitious and coordinated action to address unprecedented and enduring changes in the ocean and cryosphere. The report reveals the benefits of ambitious and effective adaptation for sustainable development and, conversely, the escalating costs and risks of delayed action. The ocean and the cryosphere – the frozen parts of the planet – play a critical role for life on Earth. A total of 670 million people in high mountain regions and 680 million people in low-lying coastal zones depend directly on these systems. Four million people live permanently in the Arctic region, and small island developing states are home to 65 million people. Copy is annexed as Annexure P-1 (Pages 39-81).

The Report states that Global warming has already reached 1°C above the pre-industrial level, due to past and current greenhouse gas emissions. There is overwhelming evidence that this is resulting in profound consequences for ecosystems and people. The ocean is warmer, more acidic and less productive. Melting glaciers and ice sheets are causing sea level rise, and coastal extreme events are becoming more severe. Urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions limits the scale of ocean and cryosphere changes. Ecosystems and the livelihoods that depend on them can be preserved. Knowledge assessed in the report outlines climate-related risks and challenges that people around the world are exposed to today and that future generations will face. It presents options to adapt to changes that can no longer be avoided, manage related risks and build resilience for a sustainable future. The assessment shows that adaptation depends on the capacity of individuals and communities and the resources available to them. People in mountain regions are increasingly exposed to hazards and changes in water availability. Glaciers, snow, ice and permafrost are declining and will continue to do so. This is projected to increase hazards for people, for example through landslides, avalanches, rockfalls and floods. As mountain glaciers retreat, they are also altering water availability and quality downstream, with implications for many sectors such as agriculture and hydropower.
That Glaciers and ice sheets in polar and mountain regions are losing mass, contributing to an increasing rate of sea level rise, together with expansion of the warmer ocean. While sea level has risen globally by around 15 cm during the 20th century, it is currently rising more than twice as fast – 3.6 mm per year – and accelerating, the report showed. Sea level will continue to rise for centuries. “In recent decades the rate of sea level rise has accelerated, due to growing water inputs from ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, in addition to the contribution of meltwater from glaciers and the expansion of warmer sea waters. Sea level rise will increase the frequency of extreme sea level events, which occur for example during high tides and intense storms. Indications are that with any degree of additional warming, events that occurred once per century in the past will occur every year by mid-century in many regions, increasing risks for many low-lying coastal cities and small islands.
The Report states that some island nations are likely to become uninhabitable due to climate-related ocean and cryosphere change. Increases in tropical cyclone winds and rainfall are exacerbating extreme sea level events and coastal hazards. Hazards will be further be intensified by an increase in the average intensity, magnitude of storm surge and precipitation rates of tropical cyclones, especially if greenhouse gas emissions remain high. Warming and changes in ocean chemistry are already disrupting species throughout the ocean food web, with impacts on marine ecosystems and people that depend on them. Marine heatwaves have doubled in frequency since 1982 and are increasing in intensity. They are projected to further increase in frequency, duration, extent and intensity. Their frequency will be 20 times higher at 2°C warming, compared to pre-industrial levels. They would occur 50 times more often if emissions continue to increase strongly. In the future, increased plant growth can increase the storage of carbon in soils and offset carbon release from permafrost thaw, but not at the scale of large changes on the long term. The report finds that strongly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting and restoring ecosystems, and carefully managing the use of natural resources would make it possible to preserve the ocean and cryosphere as a source of opportunities that support adaptation to future changes, limit risks to livelihoods and offer multiple additional societal benefits.
The Petitioner further states that the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5˚C was released on 8th October 2018. Copy is annexed as Annexure P-2 (Pages-82 to 105). The report states that if the planet warmed by 1.5˚C there would be some devastating consequences, such as the loss of most coral reefs, and increased extreme weather such as heatwaves and floods. Yet the consequences of allowing 2˚C warming would be truly catastrophic. Given that the planet is currently heading for 3-4˚C warming, keeping to 1.5˚C requires a radical shift across energy, land, industrial, urban and other systems to reduce emissions, unprecedented in history for its speed. Global emissions were roughly 52 GtCO2e in 2016, and are projected to be 52-58 GtCO2e by 2030. Annual emissions need to be about half that (25-30 GtCO2e/yr on average) by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5˚C (with no or low overshoot). While it’s still technically feasible to avoid a 1.5˚C rise in temperature, behavior and technologies will need to shift across the board in order to achieve these emissions reductions.
The report states that scale of the required low-carbon transition is unprecedented. While there have been examples of rapid change in specific technologies or sectors in the past, there is no precedent in our documented history for the rate of change at the scale required for limiting warming to 1.5˚C. In other words, we have never before witnessed such widespread, rapid transitions, and they will need to be made across energy, land, industrial, urban and other systems, as well as across technologies and geographies. Emissions will need to reach net-zero around mid-century. In addition to large emissions cuts in the next decade, net CO2 emissions will on average need to be reduced to zero by mid-century. All pollutants leading to climate change must be addressed.
The report notes the critical role of short-lived but highly potent climate pollutants, such as methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). While carbon dioxide dominates long-term warming, reduction of other pollutants can contribute to the 1.5˚C goal in the short term, with substantial co-benefits, such as reducing air pollution. All 1.5˚C emissions pathways rely upon carbon removal to some extent. The report shows clearly that we will need to focus efforts not only on reducing emissions, but also removing and storing carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon removal is necessary for both moving to net-zero emissions and for producing net-negative emissions to compensate for any overshoot of 1.5˚C. The report also notes that feasibility and sustainability of carbon removal could be enhanced if a portfolio of carbon-removal approaches is pursued. Further it states that countries, cities, the private sector, individuals need to strengthen their action, without delay. Without transformation in society and rapid implementation of ambitious emissions cuts, limiting warming to 1.5˚C while achieving sustainable development will be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. Carbon dioxide emissions grew 2% and reached a record high of 37 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2018. Despite extraordinary growth in renewable fuels over the past decade, the global energy system is still dominated by fossil fuel sources. The net-zero emissions needed to stabilize the climate requires both an acceleration in use of non-carbon energy sources and a rapid decline in the global share of fossil fuels in the energy mix. Therefore, all countries and non-state actors will need to strengthen their contributions without delay.
The reports also states that Growing climate impacts increase the risks of crossing critical tipping points. These refer to thresholds that, if crossed, lead to far-reaching, in some cases abrupt and/or irreversible changes. There is a growing recognition that climate impacts are hitting harder and sooner than climate assessments indicated even a decade ago. As climate change intensifies, cities are particularly vulnerable to impacts such as heat stress and can play a key role in reducing emissions locally and globally. Strategies for mitigation and for upscaling adaptive risk management are necessary going forward. Neither is adequate in isolation given the pace of climate change and magnitude of its impacts. Only immediate and all-inclusive action encompassing: deep de-carbonization complemented by ambitious policy measures, protection and enhancement of carbon sinks and biodiversity, and efforts to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, will enable us to meet the Paris Agreement.
Petitioner states that although it is hard to find an origin story of the phrase 'Climate Emergency', Bristol Green Party councillor Carla Denyer could be the first politician to put forward the idea of declaring "a climate emergency" in November 2018 after it had become common parlance among environmentalists. In the motion to British City Council, which was passed, she stated that she was inspired by the recent IPCC report which warned that humanity has 12 years to take emergency action in order to prevent global warming greater than 1.5°C. Above this temperature, the risks to humanity of floods, droughts, extreme heat and poverty become much greater, impacting on hundreds of millions more people - hence the need to declare ‘an Climate Emergency’.
The Club of Rome in its seminal 1972 report The Limits to Growth alerted the world to the environmental and demographic challenges. The central message was that the quest for unlimited growth in population, material goods and resources, on a finite planet, would eventually result in the collapse of its economic and environmental systems. That prediction is clearly manifesting in the climate change crisis we are confronted with today. They had called governments, business leaders, the science community, NGOs and citizens to rise to the challenge of climate action, so that our species can survive and create thriving civilizations in harmony with planetary boundaries. Acknowledgement of these implications creates the basis for a societal renaissance of unprecedented proportions. The Club of Rome believes that such action, difficult as it may be, will create a much healthier, happier, safer and innovative global society. Climate change has posed clear threats to international peace and security, with natural disasters displacing three times as many people as conflicts; forcing millions to flee their homes in search of refuge.
That we are on the threshold of a frightening new era, never before has humankind's abuse of the environment put the whole planet in danger. It has become the very greatest threat to our planet and everyone on it, besides all-out war with modern weapons of mass-destruction. The Greenhouse gases that cause climate change have a delayed effect, like a disease with a long incubation period. This means that we do not know how much irreversible damage we have done already - but we know that if we don't act now the effects will be many times more devastating still. People are dying from climate change now though it is not obvious since it is happening through a steady and unrelenting increase in the frequency and severity of the kind of 'natural' disasters (floods, droughts, hurricanes and etc..).
Expert states this is down to the Industrial Revolution and the massively increased release of certain gases into the atmosphere that this brought about. Most of all this was Carbon Dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas formed from "fossilised" vegetation, buried beneath the earth's surface) but also included increased amounts of methane, nitrous oxide, and halocarbons. At the same time we have been cutting down trees - clearing forests - at an unprecedented rate. Trees, like most vegetation - and indeed 'life forms' - are largely made of carbon so their burning or rotting away releases what had been "stored" carbon, back into the atmosphere, as CO2. That the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report produced in 2019 shows the biodiversity crisis is on a par with the threat posed by climate change. The main direct causes of biodiversity loss are habitat change, direct exploitation (e.g., fishing, hunting and logging), invasive alien species, pollution (including nutrient loading), and climate change.
Expert says a Declaration of Climate Emergency will put the government on record in support of taking emergency action to reverse global warming. Let there be an order for Endorsing the Declaration Of A Climate Emergency And Emergency Mobilization Effort To Restore A Safe Climate which includes an order to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the economy; to rapidly and safely drawdown and remove all the excess carbon from the atmosphere at emergency speed and until safe, pre-industrial climate conditions are restored; and to implement measures to protect all people and species from the consequences of abrupt climate breakdown; A rapid, just, managed phase-out of fossil fuels; Ending greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible to establish a zero-emissions economy; A full transition to a regenerative agriculture system; participate actively in the planning and implementation of this mobilization effort and that they benefit first from the transition to a climate-safe economy;
Carbon dioxide levels are the highest they’ve been in human history. Already, there is widespread suffering, including tragic losses of human life and biodiversity, with poorer and marginalized communities the worst affected. The goal of the Climate Emergency Campaign is to compel governments, starting at the local level and building upward, to adopt an emergency response to climate change and the broader ecological crisis. Entering emergency mode is the critical first step to launching the comprehensive mobilization required to rescue and rebuild civilization. The most visionary and courageous business leaders aren’t afraid to make the hard choices, to shift their entire business model in order to support the healthy ecological, social and economic systems on which we all depend. In their eyes, if a business is dependent upon finite resources, then it must look at how it changes what it does, not just how it does it.
Experts says we are facing a climate emergency, and we need to act accordingly. To avoid further collapse of environmental, political and socio-economic systems, urgent leadership including directions is required now from this Hon’ble court and The Respondent. Climate change is already affecting billions of people across the globe and every economy. Thermal power plants are an all-year-round source of air pollution, spewing particulate matter and oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, which produce secondary particulate matter. Burning of coal also produces greenhouse gases that disrupt climatic patterns. The adverse impacts of climate change on the developmental prospects of the country are further amplified enormously by the existence of widespread poverty and dependence of a large proportion of the population on climate sensitive sectors for livelihood. Urgent efforts to reduce Green House Gases emissions need to take place against the backdrop of a growing energy demand and urbanization in India.
Expert says People are great at rising to the occasion in an emergency. Already people are dying and ecosystems are being destroyed. We must face up to climate facts, go into emergency mode, and throw everything we’ve got at restoring a safe climate. More and more people are calling for the Indian Government to take stronger action on climate change. We are running out of time. We are the last generation with the power to avert climate breakdown - the time to act must be now. I appeal this Hon’ble court to declare a climate emergency and mobilise society-wide resources at sufficient scale and speed to protect civilisation, the economy, people, species, and ecosystems. Online Petitions through social platform to declare climate change as an emergency in India has already crossed more than 1 lakhs signatures and still Respondent failed to take actions to declare Climate Change. Following Online Petition at Change.org and other social portal was already filed 1. Petition to declare climate change as an emergency in India – by Ted The Stoner (real name: Jatindra Sharma). 293,000 signatures by 7 July 2019, 2. “Tell our nation the truth. Help our kids. Save our future. Declare a National Climate Emergency now!” – by Prithvi Jain. 66,000 signatures by 7 July 2019. 3. “Children demand Declaration of a National Climate Emergency and Tackling of Climate Change” – by Aman Sharma. 184,000 signatures by 7 July 2019. 4. “Young Children & Youth demanding Declaration of a National Climate Emergency on Climate Change and tackle urgently” – by Raj Mahakala. 245 supporters by 9 September 2019 and many others. Declaring Climate Emergency would help in Energy efficiency would thrive, forests would be regenerated, habitats would be protected, air pollution health effects would vanish, Public transport, cycling and EV’s would flourish, and etc.
The instant Writ is not barred by the doctrine of estoppel res judicata.
The Petitioner states that the Petitioner has no other efficacious alternative remedy than to prefer the instant Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.
That the Petitioner crave leave to add, amend or alter any of the foregoing grounds with the permission of this Hon’ble Court.
The petitioner has not filed any other petition, appeal or application other than the one mentioned in this petition, before this Hon’ble Court or any other High Court seeking similar reliefs as are sought in this Writ Petition.

PRAYERS

It is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that this Hon’ble Court may graciously be pleased to:

Issue a writ of mandamus or other appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondent to declare an Climate Emergency in India;
Order for Emergency Mobilization Effort to Restore A Safe Climate which includes an order to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the economy and put resources in place to enable it to help reduce carbon emissions by the Respondent;
Issue a writ of mandamus or other appropriate writ order or direction directing the Respondent and the concerned authorities under them to take such measures so as to develop and enforce such procedures and mechanisms to comply with the safety and security and protection of the endangered species and also to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025;
Issue such other appropriate writ or direction that may be deemed to be just and equitable in the facts and circumstances of the case and in the interest of justice

AND FOR THIS ACT OF KINDNESS THE PETITIONER AS IN DUTY BOUND SHALL EVER PRAY:

DRAWN BY:: FILED BY::

PIL to declare an Climate Emergency in India

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