A disconcerting new report has revealed that if business continues as usual on the front of carbon dioxide emissions, India among 13 countries could face the worst impacts of climate change in the times to come. Global risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft, in its Climate Hazard Index, puts countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Malaysia, the UAE, Vietnam, Egypt, Pakistan, Mexico, Australia and Iraq in the most-vulnerable category. These 13 countries are among the top 30 major emitters globally. Surprisingly, the world’s biggest polluters, the US and China, may escape the very worst climate outcomes, according to the report.
Increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like droughts and severe storms will have disastrous effects. However, it is predicted that the primary threat to economic activity and human life in these nations will be the rising heat levels, the report said. Climate data indicates that the 13 major emitters most vulnerable to climate change are expected to undergo a considerable increase in occurrences of extreme heat.
Besides, severe heat can significantly impede various forms of economic activity. This is especially evident when heat is coupled with high humidity in tropical areas or intense radiation in desert regions. The report underscores that these circumstances can create significant heat stress, posing a potential danger to individuals working in industries that require outdoor or poorly ventilated environments, like agriculture and construction.
In light of these scary predictions, one would assume India, as the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the most populous country, should be doing enough to allay the concerns.
Sadly, climate change is not yet a part of our political discourse and still remains confined to civil society groups or communities that are frequently bearing the brunt of extreme weather events. At the individual level, three out of five Indians perceive climate change as a threat to the country, according to data aggregated in 2019 and 2021 by Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll.
Erratic monsoons, desertification, flash floods, melting Himalayan glaciers, rising sea levels and severe heat waves are being felt across the country, yet, none of these issues are discussed at the political level. According to a survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the Centre for Voting Opinion & Trends in Election Research, between 1999 and 2019, only 0.3 per cent of questions raised by our politicians in the Parliament and state Assemblies were about climate change.
Unsurprisingly, the subject of climate change finds little or no mention in the recently released manifestoes of the parties contesting the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. Contrast this with Europe, which is witness to frequent climate protests by students and most recently by farmers, or Australia, where the last national elections were held primarily on the issue of climate change. In fact, it is difficult to imagine climate threat finding a place in our political narratives when religion, caste, legacy and such other polarising yet irrelevant topics have overshadowed even bread-and-butter issues that concern everyone.
Voters are primarily to be blamed for the current state of affairs wherein economic growth, keeping climate change in focus, has been completely removed from political agendas. All that we discuss today is limited to the number of seats a particular party and its leader can garner, who will the heir apparent be or what is being offered ‘free’ to seduce us, the voters, at this moment.
While skilling the youth is a process to prepare millions to become effective servants fit for ‘jobs’, we voters never bother to question who will be capable and how that capability will come about for a select few to employ large number of employees. The scenario is simple to understand. If your next generation gets skilled, she will expect a job cut out for her abilities. Some select few people would obviously have to be enabled to absorb these millions of servants and pay them salaries. Who will those few be and how will they be created to employ large numbers should be questions of prime importance.
The question must not stop simply at how India’s target of achieving net zero emissions by 2070 will be achieved. More important is how well will our economy be woven, who has plans to offer and will those plans have the strength to withstand implementation. Keeping both economic growth for all and protecting Nature at the same time are issues where this nation’s attention should be focussed.
Unfortunately, the voter has himself undermined and destroyed his own importance today. He stands reduced as an arithmetical digit only.