Critical Evaluation of EIA Notification 2020 in India w.r.t Sustainable Development Goals and European Union Best Practices in Climate Change Policy

Abstract

Climate change as a challenge imposes an obligation on nations to indicate that climate change mitigation is at the core of their domestic policymaking. As a responsible stakeholder in climate change mitigation, India responded by announcing constitutional protection for the environment under the constitution. Since then, India has enacted several legislations to protect and conserve the environment. In 1994, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was one such attempt to forecast and mitigate possible harm to the environment. Recently, the Government of India has amended the EIA process by introducing changes to the law through the EIA Notification 2020. The paper identifies the problems associated with recent changes and produces empirical evidence to substantiate the study. It further attempts to appraise the Sustainable Development Goals and the importance given to environmental impact assessment by international organizations including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The paper further studies several best practices in the European Union and concludes by suggesting law reforms in Indian law.