Global rankings predict high risk to Indian states due to climate change
Nine Indian states have featured in 50 high risk regions in the rankings. Twenty-six Chinese states and five US states feature as well.
Several regions in India are included in a new list of those facing highest climate risk by 2050. The rankings say that cities and regions in India, China and the US face great threat due to climate change. The rankings were released on Monday (February 20) by Cross Dependency Initiative, a firm that specialises in climate risk analysis for companies, banks and regions.
The rankings say that Indian states of Punjab, Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala and Assam are most vulnerable. Mumbai, which is a port city and financial capital of India is at high risk. Nine Indian states have featured in 50 high risk areas. Twenty-six Chinese states and five US states feature as well.
These rankings take into account physical risk to infrastructure from eight climate change hazards: Coastal flooding, riverine and surface flooding, forest fire, extreme heat, drought-related soil movement, extreme wind and freeze thaw. Global climate models were used combined with local environmental and weather data and archetypes of engineering.
Gross Domestic Climate Risk ranking by XDI is a stark reminder that climate change will be marauding the developmental trajectories across the global south.
The report states that under high emissions scenarios (around four-degree rise), 9 Indian states that are ranked within the top 50 most at-risk states and provinces will witness an average of 110 per cent increase in damage risk by 2050.
Currently, with a 0.8 degrees rise in temperature, India’s 27 states and more than three-quarters of its districts are extreme event hotspots accounting for a 5 percent loss in GDP.
These numbers speak volumes. If global warming is not limited to 2-degree thresholds, climate-vulnerable states like Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, among others, will lose more than 10 per cent of their gross state domestic product (GSDP).
India has already established its global thought leadership by founding 21st-century institutions like ISA and CDRI, these institutions should leapfrog in making India the climate solutions hub for the world by fostering systemic, technological, and financial innovations from the margins to the mainstream.
"Since climate risks and readiness do not go hand-in-hand, promoting nature-based solutions should be a national imperative that can avert the extent of loss and damage to physical assets and infrastructures", Abinash Mohanty, sector head, IPE-Global- an international development organisation said, as quoted by the Hindustan Times.
In case of China, the most affected provinces are in east and south.
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