According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) report “Income Protection and Early Warning Systems: How India is Building Climate Resilience”, India lost 33.9 million hectares (ha) of crops due to excess rains and an additional 35 million ha due to drought during 2015 to 2021.
- India has seen unparalleled growth and development in recent decades, but this growth is expected to hinder due to increased exposure to climate extremities including heat waves, floods and earthquakes.
Key Effects of Climate Change in India:
i.An extreme climate events in India has impacted every aspect of its economy and society, but is more pronounced in particularly exposed sectors such as: agriculture, which comprises 15% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 40% of its population, of which 70% are rural households.
ii.Several Indian sectors including, agriculture suffered economic losses of nearly USD 159 billion in 2021 due to lost working hours from extreme climate impacts.
ii.India will see a significant decrease of 5.8% in working hours, which is equivalent to 34 million full-time jobs, due to heat stress by 2030.
- The WEF said that many of these people are unable to protect their livelihoods from extreme weather events and climate change due to increase in insurance coverage gap
iii.The government agencies and business leaders are working on various sector-specific local and national strategies to address the challenges related to climate change.
Key India’s Initiative to build Climate Resilience:
India’s insurance gap can amount to billions when it comes to counting the costs of extreme weather events. However, a growing insurance coverage gap is preventing many of these people from protecting their livelihoods from extreme weather events and climate change.
The 3 strategies implemented in India for building climate resilience are,
i.Sandbox for Agricultural and Rural Security, Technology and Insurance (SARATHI) is a user-friendly digital platform launched by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoAFW), Government of India (GoI).It will simplify the process for farmers to view and purchase insurance.
- It will help to decrease the coverage gap for the roughly 40% of India’s population working in the agricultural sector.
ii.The Women’s Climate Shock insurance and Livelihoods initiative (WCS), a first-of-its-kind income replacement product. It will prevent female outdoor workers being forced to work during the extreme heat waves.
- During a record-breaking heatwave in 2024, the product paid out to over 46,000 female outdoor workers.
iii.India was the 1st country in South Asia to create a heat action plan after extreme heat wave in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India)in 2010 that resulted in a 43% increase in mortality compared with 2009.
- Some of the key features of the plan includes, a system to alert residents when dangerous heat waves are expected and provides cooling centres; and educates healthcare workers about how to diagnose and treat heat-related cases. It saves around 1,190 lives per year.
Other Key Points:
i.The report recommended insurers could work in partnership with policy-makers and government officials to use the industry’s leading risk analytics, predictive tools and climate data to inform more heat action plans and direct capital towards high-impact adaptation interventions.
ii.It is estimated that extreme weather events will cost the global economy USD 38 trillion per year without adaptation strategies by 2050.
iii.The report cautioned about the cascading effects on local economies (for instance by reducing tax revenues) if as expected 45 million people are forced to migrate from their homes by 2050 as result of climate change.
About World Economic Forum (WEF):
Founder- Prof. Klaus Schwab
Managing Director (MD)- Saadia Zahidi
Headquarters- Cologyny, Switzerland
Established – 1971
