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Climate Change Tracker: 75% of India’s Districts Vulnerable to Extreme Climate Events

According to a new study, nearly all of India is vulnerable to increases in extreme climate events like cyclones, droughts, floods and heatwaves

On December 12, as the world marked five years of the landmark Paris Agreement on Climate Change, it also provided for an opportunity to take stock. Over the past five years, our knowledge of the exact nature of the risks of climate change impacts, as well as the opportunities to mitigate against them, have become more refined. This week’s column takes a look at one such report that came out around that date, focusing on India’s climate change challenges.

On 10 December, the New Delhi-based energy research institution Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) released a study appraising the climate change-induced threats facing India. The study, Preparing India for Extreme Climate Events: Mapping Hotspots and Response Mechanisms, which is a district-level profiling of extreme climate events in India, concludes that 75% of Indian districts are vulnerable to events such as cyclones, droughts, floods and cold waves. Authored by Abhinash Mohanty, a programme lead at CEEW focusing on risks and adaptation, the study is based on an extreme events catalogue prepared by the organisation, covering a time period of 1970-2019.

The report urges the importance of climate risk assessment as a cornerstone of India’s climate resilience strategies and proposes the creation of a climate risk atlas of the country. Echoing earlier climate reports, the CEEW study also calls for greater availability of weather and climate data in the country.

Across 2020, there have been other studies that have issued India-specific climate warnings, including the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) climate change assessment report. Reading the CEEW study in tandem with these, it is increasingly clear that simultaneous strategies of mitigation and adaptation are urgently required to deal with the multiple climate threats facing India.

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Author

  • Bibek Bhattacharya

    Bibek Bhattacharya is an experienced editor and journalist currently serving as the National Editor at LiveMint, where he manages feature stories for Lounge, the Mint Sports page, and online fitness content. He writes a weekly column on climate change and hosts the Mint Climate Change Tracker Podcast. Previously, he held editorial roles at Outlook Traveller, Business Today, and NDTV, contributing to content strategy, digital media, and travel journalism. Bibek has an MA in Television Media from the Asian College of Journalism and a BA in English Literature from Jadavpur University.

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