The Supreme Court of India’s Justice B V Nagarathna has underlined the need for responsive “legal standards” to deal with the changing nature of ecological and environmental harms that are not restricted to a particular region but experienced across boundaries.“The consequences of environmental decisions are felt differently across regions, communities, and generations. Some bear the brunt of degradation more sharply, while others enjoy the benefits of development more fully. This places before us the question of balancing. Environmental governance will frequently require reconciliation between development and conservation, between competing uses of natural resources, and between present needs and future interests. It is shaped at the intersection of multiple and often competing domains: science, economics, technology, ethics, and politics,” said the judge.Justice Nagarathna was speaking at the Valedictory Session of the International Conference on “The Future of Environment and Climate Dynamics” organised by the National Green Tribunal at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital.The event was attended by President Droupadi Murmu, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs & Minister of Power, Government of India Manohar Lal, Justice Prakash Shrivastava, Chairperson, National Green Tribunal, and Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta.Must seek balance: SG Tushar MehtaSpeaking on the evolution of environmental jurisprudence, Mehta noted that environmental law has evolved beyond the regulation of pollution and protection of individual natural resources. It has increasingly become a law of life, dignity, equality, and intergenerational responsibility, he added.“The lesson is clear. The environmental law must seek balance. We must protect biodiversity while addressing climate change, promote renewable energy while safeguarding fragile ecosystems, and pursue development while ensuring environmental responsibility. This requires proportionality, scientific temperament, scientific assessment, technological evolution, innovation, sustainable development, and several other factors. India’s commitment to environmental protection also draws its strength from its civilisational wisdom,” he said.Justice Nagarathna, on the other hand, said that given the evolving times, legal standards must remain responsive to new information.Story continues below this ad“In today’s world, we increasingly face transboundary environmental crises. Pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss and the degradation of our shared ecosystems do not respect territorial boundaries. Harm originating in one jurisdiction is often experienced beyond it. This makes environmental protection a matter of global regulation, requiring States to account for the consequences of their actions beyond their own territorial limits,” shared Justice Nagarathna.While adjudicating environmental disputes, she said, courts are not concerned merely with the determination of completed wrongs or the redress of injuries already occasioned but also required to confront and respond to risks that are unfolding in real time, often under conditions of scientific uncertainty and with the potential for irreversible ecological consequences.“In that sense, environmental adjudication is an exercise in foresight, requiring courts to govern the present with an alert consciousness of the future. Good environmental governance, therefore, requires not only rights, but effective institutions, enforcement, transparency, accountability and access to justice. In that light, the contribution of the Supreme Court of India to environmental jurisprudence has been overwhelming and significant,” she added.‘Supreme Court pushing for shift’According to the judge, the Supreme Court has now been pushing for a shift from an “anthropocentric” approach to an “ecocentric” one in environmental matters.Story continues below this ad“This entails recognising that human interests do not, by virtue of being human, enjoy automatic precedence over the interests of the non-human world; rather, we bear obligations towards non-human life that exist independently of their utility to us,” she said.In recent years, courts across many jurisdictions, including the Supreme Court, have emerged as central actors in giving concrete meaning to the idea of “environmental justice”. The judge underscored the alignment of the approach with the insistence on environmental governance accounting not only for aggregate outcomes, but for their differentiated social impacts.