According to a recent study, over 90% of India’s entire land area is in the “extremely cautious” or “danger zone” of experiencing heatwaves, which are occurring more frequently as a result of climate change. Ramit Debnath and colleagues at the University of Cambridge conducted a study that found Delhi to be especially susceptible to the effects of extreme heat waves. According to the study, heatwaves are hindering India’s efforts more than previously believed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, and current assessment metrics do not properly account for the effects of heatwaves on the nation.
The research claims that extreme heat could ultimately result in a 15% reduction in “outdoor working capacity,” a decline in quality of life for up to 480 million people, and a cost of 2.8 percent of GDP by 2050. Furthermore, since 1992, heatwaves have contributed to more than 24,000 fatalities, increased air pollution, and hastened the melting of glaciers in northern India. A recent award ceremony in Maharashtra saw fourteen people pass away from sunstroke, making it the nation’s greatest recorded death toll from a single heatwave-related incident. India is currently “facing a collision of multiple, cumulative climate hazards” and extreme weather was experienced nearly every day from January to October of last year.
WHAT FINDINGS DID THE STUDY REACH?
The heat index and climate vulnerability index of the nation were analytically evaluated by the researchers. The heat index (HI), which considers both temperature and humidity, is a gauge of how hot it feels to the human body. The climatic vulnerability index (CVI) is a composite index that analyzes the effects of heatwaves by taking into account socioeconomic, livelihood, and biophysical factors.
The study found that key factors in Delhi that will exacerbate heat-related vulnerabilities include the concentration of slum dwellers and overcrowding in high HI areas, lack of access to basic services like electricity, water, and sanitation, the lack of immediate access to healthcare and health insurance, the poor condition of housing, and unclean cooking fuel.
The authors came to the conclusion that the use of CVI may significantly understate the true impact of climate change on heat and recommended that India reevaluate its climate vulnerabilities in order to achieve the SDGs. Since records have been kept in 1901, February 2023 in India was the warmest on record.