In the battle against climate change, some countries are more active & participatory while the others are more apathetic. Let's understand what threats India would be facing in future due to Climate Change.
India is the most vulnerable country to climate change along with Pakistan, Philippines and Bangladesh (in that order) a ranking by HSBC revealed last month.
The bank assessed 67 developed, emerging and frontier markets on vulnerability to the physical impacts of climate change, sensitivity to extreme weather events, exposure to energy transition risks and ability to respond to climate change.
“Putting the lives of 600 million people at risk due, the Climate change is likely to make rainfall erratic, contribute to rising sea-levels and could lead to extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and heat waves across the sub-continent.”
The 67 nations represent almost 1/3rd of the world's nations, 80% of the global population and 94% of global gross domestic product. HSBC averaged the scores in each area for the countries so as to reach the overall ranking. Some countries were highly vulnerable in some areas but less so in others. Of the four sub-continental nations HSBC assessed to be the 'most vulnerable', India has said climate change could cut agricultural incomes, particularly unirrigated areas that would be hit hardest by rising temperatures and declines in rainfall.
Revelations based on IndiaSpend report:
Communities and livelihoods nation-wide have already been affected by climate change in certain parts. Yet India, where one in every seventh person on the planet lives, has no national study on the impact of climate change, although about 600 million people are at risk from its effects. However, this is set to change sooner or later this year says Ravindranath, a climate scientist at the Centre for Sustainable Technologies of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), who is currently heading an assessment study on the impact of climate change across regions and sectors. His assessment, which is likely to be the foundation that will guide climate-related policy, will be submitted to the Indian government and the UN.
Human activities have already caused warming of 1°C compared to pre-industrial times, according to a 2018 IPCC report. By 2030, or latest by mid-century, global warming is likely to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius. In March 2019, Ravindranath headed the first study that analysed climate change in India’s Himalayan Region (IHR). The study found, as IndiaSpend reported, that all 12 Indian states studied–including Assam, Mizoram and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)--are “highly vulnerable”, with little capacity to resist or cope. In 2018, Ravindranath, along with other researchers, also helped the government of Meghalaya assess the damage to its forests. Over 16 years to 2016, nearly half of Meghalaya’s forests experienced an “increase in disturbance”, and around a quarter are now “highly vulnerable” to the impact of climate change, the study found.
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