GOVERNING CLIMATE–SDG INTERACTIONS IN INDIA: A LEGAL-INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATED WATER, ENERGY, CONSUMPTION, AND FOREST GOVERNANCE

Climate change cuts across water security, energy access, resource use, and biodiversity conservation, yet separate legal mandates commonly govern these functions. This article examines how legal institutions can manage these interactions in India, where the Supreme Court has recognized a right to protection from the adverse effects of climate change, while sectoral legislation continues to assign water, energy, environmental protection, and forest governance to distinct institutions. Using selected-source doctrinal and institutional analysis, the article assesses constitutional judgments, statutes, delegated instruments, and climate-policy documents against four criteria: normative alignment, institutional coordination, accountability, and distributive safeguards. It finds an uneven integration architecture rather than a complete absence of climate-relevant law. Existing provisions on rural electrification, hydropower planning, environmental protection, and judicially supervised expert processes offer partial pathways for coordination, but they do not establish a consistently applicable duty to identify, assess, and reconcile climate–development trade-offs. The Great Indian Bustard litigation illustrates both the potential and the limits of litigation-led coordination. The article proposes a legal-institutional framework comprising climate–SDG planning and reason-giving duties, assigned coordination responsibilities, independent scrutiny, participatory safeguards, and periodic reporting. It offers a transferable model for integrating climate action with Sustainable Development Goals 6, 7, 12, 13 and 15 without treating renewable-energy expansion or carbon sequestration as substitutes for biodiversity protection and social justice.