Acclimatising to climate risks

Context: While winter may be longer and harsher in some regions due to La Niña, forecasters suggest that 2021 would still be among the Earth’s hottest years recorded.

Impacts of rising extreme climate events

• Vulnerability: 75% of districts in India, home to over half the population were vulnerable to extreme climate events (report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water).
• Extreme climate events: 250 between 1970 and 2005 and 310 extreme climate events after 2005.
  • The intensity of floods increased eightfold and that of associated events such as landslides and heavy rainfall increased by over 20 times since 1970.
  • Drought-affected districts: Increased by a yearly average of 13 times over the last two decades.
  • The frequency of cyclones has also doubled.
• Financial loss: Of more than $100 billion between 1990 and 2019.

Countering extreme climate events:

• Enhancing adaptation and resilience to mainstream climate actions.
• Create an Environment and Health De-risking Mission:
  • To increase emergency preparedness, secure critical resources and build resilient infrastructure and governance systems to counter the climate uncertainties.
  • Focus on democratising local climate-related and weather-related data along with integrating risk projections in national, sub-national and district disaster and climate plans.
  • Ensure restoration, revival, and recreation: of traditional climate-resilient practices, with a special focus on indigenous communities, often on the front lines of ecosystem conservation.
• Prepare a comprehensive Climate Risk Atlas: To present a risk-informed decision-making toolkit for policymakers at the national, state, and district level. It would help in-
  • Better preparation against extreme climate events, urban heat stress, water stress, crop loss, vector-borne diseases, and biodiversity collapse.
  • Assessing the resilience and adaptation capabilities of communities and business.
  • Climate-proofing critical infrastructure.
• Ensuring financial adequacy:
  • Risk financing instruments and risk retention and identification tools should be supplemented by contingency and adaptation funds such as the Green Climate Fund.
  • Mobilising investments on critical infrastructures and resilient community actions.
  • The Climate Ambition Summit called for enhancing adaptation financing by 50% versus its current share of 20% of the total pool of climate financing.
  • Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) should be used by India to attract private investments into climate-proofing of infrastructure
    • Need to promote adaptation-based infrastructure investment decision making
    • Champion a culture of localised risk assessments among members from the Global South.

Conclusion: Ignoring low probability risks could be catastrophic for the economy as well as society. This year, policymakers, industry captains and common citizens must make climate-proof choices.