Adaptation and Risk Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on unprecedented adversities for rural populations worldwide, endangering livelihoods and causing psycho-social impacts. These catastrophic effects have been further exacerbated by climate change, with a disproportional impact witnessed among the most vulnerable populations.

The world is urbanising at a rapid pace. The United Nation’s report, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, predicts that close to 70% of the world’s population will reside in an urban area by 2050, placing an enormous burden on natural resources, especially water.

Given that the impacts of climate change will be felt acutely by cities, especially in the Global South, there is a need to adopt new processes — such as used-water reuse — to help secure their future.

Climate change will amplify the existing risks and create new risks for natural and socio-economic systems. These risks are unevenly distributed and experienced. They are often greater for the disadvantaged or marginalised people (particularly women and girls), and also depend on the geographic location of these communities or ecological systems, such as coasts or mountains. Failing to assess climate risks—current and future—can lead to resource wastage, or worse, maladaptation.

The impacts of climate variability, climate change, and extreme events are visible globally and in India. The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 ranks India seventh, considering the extent to which India has been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heatwaves, etc.). The index signals that the repercussions of escalating climate change are exacerbating and can no longer be ignored.

India is vulnerable, in varying degrees, to multiple disasters. The risks are compounded due to inherent vulnerabilities related to socio-economic conditions, environmental and climate change. India has several flagship programmes with large budgets, delivering serendipitous adaptation. The MGNREGS is one such programme implementing works related to Natural Resource Management.

This series of articles is a joint editorial initiative of ETEnergyworld and CSTEP. It will discuss some of the key sectors in terms of their contribution to India's total greenhouse gas emissions. In the first part of this series, we discussed the transport sector from a climate point of view and argued that a transport decarbonisation strategy should include diverse options for all segments to complement electrification.

The impacts of climate variability, climate change, and extreme events are visible globally and in India. The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 ranks India seventh, considering the extent to which India has been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heatwaves, etc.). The index signals that repercussions of escalating climate change are exacerbating and can no longer be ignored.

Risk, in the context of climate change, is a function of three factors — hazards, exposure, and vulnerability.