Federal Systems and the Fight Against Climate Change: A Comparative Analysis of India and Canada

A critical examination of the institutional methods used by political systems to address climate and environmental issues is urgently needed. With roughly half of the world’s population living in a federal system, there is also an urgent need to reflect on ways to rethink environmental and climate governance in a federal setting. For this purpose, we look here at the literature on “environmental federalism”, defined as “the study of the normative and positive consequences of the shared role of national and subnational units of government in controlling environmental problems” (Shobe and Burtraw, Resources for the Future, Discussion Paper 12:1–42, 2012: 3).