Climate Crisis: The Urgency of Now
India is a diverse country with 1.4 billion population . Being the most populated country in the world, undoubtedly India will play an important role in climate change .But if we talk about nations’ interests and stand on climate change there are many areas to consider.
Firstly let’s talk about what are the major problems that are created due to climate change ?
The first foremost is heatwaves , India is one of the most vulnerable when it comes to heat waves. “According to studies, India’s risk of heat waves is 30 times higher due to climate change”(greenly). Heat Waves are not new to Indians but due to climate change the intensity of climate change is getting higher. Due to the increase in heat waves, problems like wet bulb temperature and water shortage occur in India .
“Researchers predict that global warming will impact India’s monsoon season through an increase of rainfall of around 5 to10%. Additionally, climate models suggest that India’s monsoon will become increasingly difficult to predict”(greenly). As a result of climate change warmer temperature is holding more moisture resulting in heavy rainfall, which leads to massive flooding.
Now let’s talk about the socio-economic problems of climate change
Intensive climate change in India is not affecting human lives but it is also gravely affecting the Indian economy. According to a greenly report India’s own Reserve Bank has projected that 4.5%of India’s GDP could be at risk by 2030 due to the impacts of climate change and It’s estimated that if India doesn’t take further steps to address the adverse effects of climate change, the damage to the economy will reach 35 trillion US dollars within the next 50 years. As populations struggle with excessive heat and humidity, productivity decreases. Extreme weather events can also have an influence on production output, endanger food and water supplies, disrupt services, and harm infrastructure.
How is India important in the world’s climate change scenario ?
India is home to 1.4 billion people and consists of 18% of the world’s population yet contributes only 7% of world’s world’s annual carbon emissions . According to a greenly report “India’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are around 2.8 tCO₂e which is well below the global average. To put this into perspective, per capita emissions in China and the U.S. are at 9.6 and 17.6 tCO₂e, respectively”
It seems pretty clear from the Indian scenario but we have to consider that as India will move towards becoming a developed nation the living standard will also increase and then India’s per capita greenhouse gas emission is likely to increase.
Now you all must be curious about what exactly are India’s climate change goals ?
At COP26 in 2021, India pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, dramatically increasing its climate mitigation pledges.
India is looking forward to reducing the carbon intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030, and fulfilling 50 % of energy requirements by renewable energy. India is looking forward to creating a new framework that will assist the shift to cleaner energy and will also increase green jobs, innovation, and the manufacturing of low-emission products.
Apart from this , Increasing adaptation targets and investments in green development projects, particularly in the most vulnerable sectors to climate change and introducing
domestic programs to protect glaciers, build a more environmentally friendly train system, phase out single-use plastic, and provide clean cooking fuel are some key goals of India.
