The Delhi High Court has stayed proceedings in a criminal defamation case filed against Sudarshan TV and its editor Suresh Chavhanke in connection with allegations that his channel made false accusations against a madrasa. The case against Chavhanke was filed by Mohammed Tufail Khan
China said on Sunday (August 23, 2026) it was postponing its planned ambitious Chang'e-7 lunar mission, which was set to carry out explorations including searching for water ice on the moon. The Chang'e-7 spacecraft was originally set to lift off in the coming days from the Wenchang Space Launch
Canada’s Carney Puts His ‘No Deal Is Better Than a Bad Deal’ Doctrine to the Test The prime minister ’s approach has broad support from the Canadian public and his political opponents, but it isn’t without risks. Published on: Aug 24, 2026, 14:05:27 IST WSJ Prefer HTon Google Share via
A group of former cricket captains, including Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar and one of England's longest-serving skippers Sir Alastair Cook, have called on Pakistan to ensure its ex-PM Imran Khan be given proper care while in custody. The cricketer-turned-politician has been in jail since
Fewer than 20 commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz at the weekend, shipping data showed on Monday (August 24, 2026), as Iranian and U.S. blockades restrict traffic through the chokepoint for energy shipments. Four vessels crossed the strait on Sunday (August 23, 2026)
India’s soaring concrete skyline is a carbon emissions blindspot
The spectre of climate change is upon us and its manifestations are there for all to see.
The public debate about climate change tends to focus on its more visible effects for adaptive (and not preventive) measures: increased frequency and intensity of heat waves, urban flooding and air pollution. However, many of the embedded sources of environmental harm remain unacknowledged. As a rapidly urbanising country, one such source that India can no longer ignore is carbon emissions emerging from its growing built environment.
Every building carries a carbon cost that far outlasts those who built it. Globally, the built environment accounts for nearly 34% of annual CO₂ emissions, the single largest share of any sector. In India, the buildings sector contributes a substantial and growing share of national greenhouse gas emissions.
Currently, the dominant discourse tends to focus mostly on “operational carbon” – the emissions from running a building, with the discussion confined to energy efficiency. What tends to be ignored is “embodied carbon” – the carbon emitted in the making of a building, from the extraction and production of materials to their transportation and construction on site.
Once a building is completed, its embodied carbon is locked in and cannot be reversed or reduced.
Since India is slated to add over 50 billion square metres of new building stock in the coming decades, how it handles the carbon emissions from new construction will become one of the most consequential environmental decisions of this century.
This explosion of built space presents a critical regulatory challenge: how should environmental law and urban planning govern and discipline the carbon intensity of India’s urban growth?
India’s environmental legal architecture was not designed to govern climate change or carbon emissions. Under the “dualist” framework of the Indian Constitution, international agreements like the Paris Agreement become enforceable only when Parliament passes a law under Article 253. This is the provision that gives Parliament the power to make laws to implement international treaties, conventions and the decisions of global conferences.
At the Global front, India has committed through its Nationally Determined Contribution to reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030 from 2005 level, and achieving “net-zero” emissions by 2070 – by transitioning to clean energy and building carbon sinks to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But there is no overarching legislation or statutory framework to enable, mandate or monitor this tall order.
India’s core environmental statutes – the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 – were landmark enactments in their time. But these laws have not evolved to incorporate the challenges of carbon emissions and climate change.
The Environment Protection Act empowers the Central Government to set standards to regulate pollutants, but does not specifically address greenhouse gas emissions from buildings or construction. The Environmental Impact Assessment notification similarly requires no whole-life carbon accounting, whether embodied or operational.
The judiciary, too, has engaged only marginally with climate change in this context. In 2024, the Supreme Court recognised a constitutional right against the adverse effects of climate change. However, Indian environmental jurisprudence has largely focused only on the visible forms of pollution such as vehicular emissions and industrial contamination, with very little engagement with building construction-related emissions.
In this context, the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022 marks a positive step forward. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has already issued building energy codes such as the Energy Conservation Building Code and Eco Niwas Samhita. The 2022 amendment moves towards an Energy Conservation and Sustainability Building Code, incorporating embodied carbon, material efficiency, and net-zero considerations. Yet implementation remains dependent on state-level notification and has not yet been widely adopted.
If environmental law has a blind spot for embodied carbon, urban planning instruments and regulations are no less culpable. The function of urban planning has traditionally been to enable economic growth while managing externalities through land-use regulation.
Across India, speculative real estate markets are driving deregulated or extremely high allowances for Floor Area Ratio, also known as Floor Space Index. This ratio defines the size of a building that can be built on a parcel of land. This increased allowance is being capitalised on to encourage high-rise development without an empirical scrutiny of its carbon implications.
The relationship between land-use intensity, building height, and carbon emissions remains almost entirely ignored in India’s urban regulatory regime. Research increasingly shows that beyond a certain threshold, higher Floor Area Ration and taller buildings generate disproportionately higher life-cycle carbon emissions and produce diminishing returns in population density.
Each additional floor increases embodied carbon and operational energy demand, while reducing rooftop solar potential and intensifying urban heat island effects.
Yet, climate considerations barely figure in state-level Town and Country Planning Acts and the planning instruments emerging from it. While some city-level master plans go beyond this limited framework, a study of 59 city plans across 24 states found that only 30% show any awareness of climate change and just 10% contain climate-relevant analysis.
Most development control regulations continue to determine Floor Area Ratio and building heights solely through market logic, with no reference to carbon emissions. National-level instruments like the Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation guidelines and the National Building Code do engage with sustainability to some degree. However, these instruments are advisory and not statutory and hence create no enforceable obligations.
While India has ambitious carbon-reduction targets on paper, it lacks a statutory architecture with enforceable targets and accountability mechanisms to achieve this. For a comprehensive response to the climate crisis, India ideally needs an enforceable “framework law” on climate change.
This can be seen in countries like Denmark and the Netherlands that have enacted climate laws with binding emission reduction targets and enforceable instruments of accountability.
A Climate Change Act can establish binding medium and long-term carbon reduction targets and enforceable accountability mechanisms across sectors, including construction.
Beyond an overarching climate change law, the most immediately actionable step lies in updating existing environmental law and regulations. The Environment Protection Act should be amended to explicitly include greenhouse gas emissions from the built environment within its regulatory scope. The Environmental Impact Assessment clearance process should also be strengthened by requiring mandatory whole-life carbon assessments for major developments.
Planning regulations must also be reformulated to limit carbon emissions from the built environment. The archaic state-level Town and Country Planning Acts should be amended to make climate change adaptation and mitigation a legally mandated objective that needs to be incorporated in the master plan.
The ensuing master plans and development control regulations should incorporate explicit carbon limits and recalibrate Floor Area Ration and height norms as instruments of carbon governance.
India can learn from France’s RE2020 regulation that imposes lifecycle carbon thresholds for buildings, with Paris having reintroduced a statutory 37-metre height limit for all new buildings, treating building height as a carbon variable.
Given the scale of construction India is expected to undertake in the coming decades, it needs to weigh the per capita carbon footprint of what it builds and set a binding per capita limit for emissions from the built environment. Such a target should be laid down in the framework climate law and operationalised through environmental and planning regulations.
Without such regulatory discipline, India’s urbanisation will exceed its fair share of emissions and push the planet closer to irreversible climate change.
Mathew Idiculla is a legal consultant and a PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow at the Faculty of Law & Justice, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Ashok Lall is the principal architect at Ashok B Lall Architects in New Delhi and an action researcher developing strategies for sustainable urban development.
Girisha Sethi is an architect and urbanist based in New Delhi and a consultant with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Source: Scroll
Related Posts: India, construction sector carbon emissions, india building sector carbon emissions, india carbon emissions construction sector, india real estate carbon emissions
India had asked the United States not to allow reporters to ask questions during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France in June, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said on Saturday
7 hours ago
Former Australian captain Greg Chappell with the support of 20 other former international skippers appealed to the Pakistan Government led by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, to provide ‘humane treatment and proper medical care’ for Imran Khan
10 hours ago
The shock resignation of Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran earlier this month has left corporate India's top job vacant. But finding his successor will be no easy task for the country's most revered conglomerate, whose sprawling $300bn empire spans Jaguar Land Rover and Air India as well as
10 hours ago
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian defended a memorandum of understanding with the United States as the best way out of a stalled war. Meanwhile, the new head of the Islamic Republic's top security body warned, in a more forceful tone, of retaliation if neighbouring countries support U.S
10 hours ago
Authorities in China have launched an investigation into reports of formaldehyde being used to preserve the freshness of cabbages for human consumption. Officials in the northeastern Hebei province confirmed that they had verified footage showing individuals dipping cabbages in a solution before
10 hours ago
Three newborns died after a fire that broke out in the neonatal intensive care unit of a government hospital in Maharashtra’s Amravati district in the early hours of Monday, PTI reported. The fire broke out at the Amravati District Women’s Hospital around 3
10 hours ago
Imran's party demands immediate cardiac care for him at Shifa International Hospital Imran's party demands immediate cardiac care for him at Shifa International Hospital Published on: Aug 24, 2026, 11:10:49 IST PTI Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Islamabad
10 hours ago
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s three-day visit to New Delhi in July 2026 for the India-Japan summit appears to have elevated relations between the two Asian countries into a fresh phase of strategic expansion. Ties had already undergone a remarkable transformation over the past decade
10 hours ago
How well do COVID antivirals actually work? Not as well as we thought How well do COVID antivirals actually work? Not as well as we thought Published on: Aug 24, 2026, 11:11:50 IST PTI Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Sydeny, If you're aged over 70
10 hours ago
On Sunday, in a post on X, Wali said the audio contained "explosive evidence" and claimed that Brar admitted his gang had ordered Nijjar's killing, alleging that the assassination was driven by an inter-gang feud. Ottawa: Three years after NIA designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed in
14 hours ago
Until recently, there would have been little to distinguish Vietnam's so-called Justice Tree from the hundreds of others lining the streets of Hanoi. Then the bouquets started piling up. It was here that former politician Nguyen Sy Cuong was driving his BMW in May last year when he veered into the
14 hours ago
Fast-fashion giant Shein says it plans to raise up to HK13.86bn (£1.3bn; $1.77bn) when its shares start trading on the Hong Kong stock market on 1 September. In a filing on Monday, Shein said it will offer nearly 280 million shares for between HK$47.60 and HK$49.50
14 hours ago
A fast-moving, wind-driven wildfire near Reno, Nevada, has forced about 42,000 people to evacuate, while another 45,000 have been urged to prepare to leave. The Hawk Fire has burned 15,040 acres, destroyed some homes and injured six people. Officials declared a state of emergency as the blaze
14 hours ago
Former Indian diplomat Navdeep Suri has raised concerns about the verification process under the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Suri, a retired Indian Foreign Services officer, went through the process in Punjab. It is among the 16 states where the voter roll revision is being
14 hours ago
A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 rattled eastern Japan, including the Tokyo area, early Sunday (August 23, 2026), injuring more than 20 people, most of them slightly, officials said. There was no danger of a tsunami. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency
1 days ago
Chinese humanoid robots broke records set by humans, including beating Usain Bolt’s 100-meter sprint world record, on the opening day of the Olympics-like World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday (August 22, 2026). More than 2,000 humanoid robots were participating in the event
1 days ago
One afternoon in 1907, a young accountant named Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman walked into the laboratory of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science at 210 Bowbazar Street in Calcutta. Though he had a passion for the sciences, colonial India offered no stable careers in the field
1 days ago
Three first information reports were filed against 14 identified and more than 200 unidentified persons on Saturday in connection with clashes between the police and student protesters a day earlier, PTI quoted Ranchi Superintendent of Police Paras Rana as saying
1 days ago
Did an Amazon delivery guy assault a 71-year-old man in California? What we know about the attack and lawsuit A California lawsuit alleged that an Amazon delivery driver assaulted a 71-year-old man at an Elk Grove gas station. Updated on: Aug 23, 2026
1 days ago
‘Pure evil’: Videos of mothers splashing water at their kids spark outrage amid Lindsay Clancy trial Social media videos of mothers throwing water at their children have sparked concerns amid Lindsay Clancy's trial. Published on: Aug 23, 2026
1 days ago
The sister of jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday (August 22, 2026) filed a petition in the Supreme Court, accusing the government and senior officials of violating the top court’s order to shift him to a private hospital for medical examination and treatment
1 days ago
The United States and Canada have entered into uncharted territory. The longtime allies and economic partners, who have enjoyed free trade for decades, are now in an escalating trade war with no clear off ramp. And for Prime Minister Mark Carney
1 days ago
Harrisburg weather update: Special Weather Statement issued for central Pennsylvania as thunderstorms bring 40mph wind NWS has issued a Special Weather Statement for Harrisburg and surrounding parts of central Pennsylvania. Published on: Aug 23, 2026
1 days ago
The police in Maharashtra’s Latur have registered a first information report against Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign, for allegedly entering a government school without permission, threatening teachers and defaming the institution
1 days ago
The United States and Iran exchanged defiant messages ahead of Monday’s (August 24, 2026) scheduled announcement of new U.S. economic sanctions that could impact the Islamic Republic and Tehran’s most important trading partners including China
1 days ago
Fourteen people were killed in military air strikes at a monastery in Myanmar early on Friday, opposition fighters and a local rescue worker have said. All of those killed were elderly and a number of monks were also injured, the rescue worker told BBC Burmese, adding that the site was struck twice
1 days ago
The Armed Forces Tribunal on Thursday upheld an administrative censure for a brigadier who was commanding a sector of the Rashtriya Rifles in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district in December 2023 when three civilians died during an interrogation following a militant attack
1 days ago
