ABSTRACT
Imaginations of possible climate futures, including perceptions, predictions and scenarios, are important as they define the scope within which action is plausible and within which responsibilities for action are willingly assumed. This chapter assesses how different Indian actors imagine climate futures and whether different actors and their ideas are connected. It deals with (strategic) visions for global governance formulated as part of domestic and foreign policy making (in both parliamentary and other domestic debates, as well as in statements in international institutions) and shows how underlying identities are an important, yet not exclusive, factor in shaping these visions. While views of nature, perspectives on technologies, religious traditions or fundamental social values are important when we assess how political elites talk about the future, other factors of more strategic nature constitute the institutional structure of states, as well as India’s position within the international climate regime, but also the international system at large. The empirical part of the Chapter presents a summary of a larger qualitative text analysis focused on India’s climate ‘visions’, also coded by looking at agency (who influences the future and to what degree), time (‘when’ is this future that is envisioned), scope (is the future of local, national, or global extent?), the specific issue that is referred to as part of future climate change (water, biodiversity, human survival and so on) and the normative evaluation of this future. In a second step we show how responsibilities to climate actions are ascribed that are associated with the imagination, as well as which solutions to the problems and challenges associated with the future are advocated.
