NGT’s international conference: Climate Justice Must Move from the Courtroom to the Catchment

NGT’s international conference: Climate Justice Must Move from the Courtroom to the Catchment

[President Murmu Addresses NGT Conference]

At the NGT’s international conference in New Delhi, leaders celebrated India’s climate progress. The harder question is whether law, public institutions and international cooperation can turn ambitious commitments into protection for vulnerable communities, forests and rivers.

[Prime Minister Inaugurates NGT’s International Conference ]

PAHARI BARUAH

On 19 and 20 September 2026, Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi became a meeting place for an urgent question: how can environmental law and public policy respond to a planet whose ecological systems are changing faster than many institutions can adapt? The National Green Tribunal’s international conference, The Future of Environment and Climate Dynamics, brought together judicial representatives, policymakers, scientists and environmental experts from India and abroad. Its agenda ranged from climate justice and environmental governance to transboundary cooperation and forest restoration. The participation of representatives from 17 countries, alongside the United Nations Environment Programme and the Asian Development Bank, gave the gathering an international frame.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the conference on 19 September, with Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, Attorney General R. Venkataramani, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava among the senior dignitaries. The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, addressed the valedictory session the following day, joined by Union Minister Manohar Lal, Supreme Court Justice B.V. Nagarathna, Justice Shrivastava and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. The NGT also released Harit Nyayam, a souvenir chronicling the Tribunal’s establishment and work, and launched a mobile application.

The conference’s significance, however, lies less in the presence of high officeholders than in the difficult questions its sessions placed before them. The first day’s discussions examined climate justice, equity and inclusion, followed by the future of environmental law and governance. The second day turned to planetary environmental challenges and cooperation, and to forests, protection and restoration. Together, these themes addressed a central problem of our time: environmental harm rarely follows the boundaries of administrative departments, national jurisdictions or legal cases, while the institutions responsible for addressing it often do.

Modi’s inaugural address placed India’s development trajectory at the centre of the debate. He argued that developing countries should not be assigned disproportionate responsibility for climate change when historical emissions and per-capita emissions differ sharply.

He also presented India’s expansion of renewable energy, electric mobility, public transport, water conservation, natural farming and waste management as evidence that development and environmental protection can advance together. The Prime Minister cited a rise in solar capacity from around 2 gigawatts a dozen years ago to more than 160 gigawatts, alongside initiatives such as rooftop solar, solar pumps, electric vehicles and the expansion of metro networks. These figures and claims formed part of the government’s account of national progress, rather than an independent evaluation of the environmental outcomes of each programme.

The equity question is real, but it cannot be settled by comparing a single emissions figure. Climate responsibility involves historical contributions, present emissions, population, development needs, capacity to act and the distribution of climate impacts. India’s development priorities and its demand for fair international burden-sharing are part of the global climate debate. So, too, is the need for all major emitters to reduce emissions rapidly, while ensuring that the transition does not deepen existing inequalities. The conference’s emphasis on climate justice offered an opportunity to move beyond competing national narratives and towards the more demanding work of equitable implementation.

That work depends heavily on environmental law. In her address, President Murmu emphasised climate resilience through people-centred and community-based adaptation rooted in traditional knowledge. Justice B.V. Nagarathna stressed the need to balance development and conservation, present needs and future interests, while accounting for the uneven effects of environmental damage. She highlighted effective institutions, enforcement, transparency, accountability and access to justice. Justice Shrivastava called for environmental law to remain inclusive and forward-looking, supported by technology, innovation, sustainable finance and a just transition. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta underscored the need to bring law, governance, science, economics and society into the same conversation.

These arguments have particular resonance in Assam and the wider Northeast. The Brahmaputra basin is a connected ecological system shaped by rainfall, glaciers, sediment, forests, wetlands, floodplains and human settlement across political boundaries. Environmental decisions taken upstream can influence downstream conditions; land-use changes, infrastructure, extraction and pollution can affect communities far beyond the site where they begin. Climate resilience here cannot be reduced to disaster response alone. It also requires sustained attention to river and wetland health, forest ecosystems, urban drainage, public health, livelihood security and the rights and knowledge of communities living closest to environmental change.

For Assam’s environmental institutions, the conference’s focus on implementation is especially relevant. The Assam Pollution Control Board has a central regulatory role in monitoring and addressing pollution, while the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department is responsible for important aspects of forest governance and environmental policy.

The Assam Climate Change Management Society has a role in coordinating climate-related planning and action. Transport and industry policy also matter: decisions about public mobility, fuels, industrial processes, waste, energy and infrastructure can either increase environmental pressure or help reduce it. These responsibilities intersect, and their effectiveness depends on coordination, transparent information and sustained enforcement.

The supplied materials identify Dr. Arup Kumar Misra, Chairman of the Pollution Control Board, Assam, and Shri M.K. Yadava, IFS ( Retd), Special Chief Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department, Government of Assam, as key figures of particular interest.

However, the official conference information available for this article does not establish their attendance, identify the full Assam delegation, or provide a complete participant-by-participant list. Their presence and any specific interventions should therefore be confirmed with the organisers or the officials’ offices before publication. The same caution applies to attributing individual statements or proposals to Assam’s representatives without a verified record.

The forest session offers another important connection to the Northeast. Forests are not simply carbon stores or targets for tree-planting campaigns. They are living systems that regulate water, support biodiversity, sustain livelihoods and hold cultural meaning for Indigenous and forest-dependent communities. Restoration that ignores local rights, ecological suitability or long-term stewardship can fail even when the number of saplings planted appears impressive.

The President’s emphasis on community-based adaptation and the conference’s attention to forest governance point towards a more grounded approach: protect existing ecosystems, restore degraded landscapes with locally appropriate species, strengthen community participation and measure success through ecological recovery rather than planting totals alone.

The wider international dimension is equally important. The presence of UNEP and the Asian Development Bank created an opening for dialogue between environmental governance, development finance and scientific knowledge. Yet international cooperation becomes meaningful only when it supports practical arrangements: shared environmental data, early-warning systems, river-basin coordination, scientific exchange, compatible monitoring methods and financing that reaches vulnerable communities.

For a transboundary basin such as the Brahmaputra, cooperation among India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and China is not an abstract diplomatic ideal. It is closely connected to flood preparedness, water security, ecosystem protection and the ability of communities to anticipate environmental change.

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The conference concluded with a call to translate commitments into effective action and sustained international cooperation. That is the measure by which its deliberations should ultimately be judged. India’s clean-energy expansion and environmental programmes are consequential policy developments, but their long-term value depends on implementation, accountability and demonstrable improvements in ecological and human well-being. A mobile application, a new policy framework or an international declaration can support that process; none can substitute for transparent enforcement, accessible justice and institutions capable of learning from evidence.

For Assam, the path forward requires environmental agencies, scientific institutions, local governments, universities, civil society and communities to work across conventional boundaries. It requires public data that people can understand, policies that recognise regional ecological differences, and development planning that takes the long-term health of rivers, forests and settlements seriously. It also requires listening to those who experience environmental change first, rather than treating them merely as recipients of decisions made elsewhere.

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The future of environmental governance will not be decided only in conference halls or courtrooms. It will be determined in the places where rivers meet cities, forests meet roads, industries meet communities and climate risks meet everyday life. The New Delhi conference placed important principles on the table. The enduring challenge is to make those principles visible in the air people breathe, the water they depend on and the landscapes they must be able to pass on to future generations.

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