india

Updated: Jul 14, 2015 08:38 IST

Global warming is at a much faster pace than estimated. The visible impact would be temperature crossing 50-degree mark by the turn of the century and water stress in the northern part of India, a new global study released on Monday in London and Mumbai said.

Climate change could cost India US $200 billion per annum if it fails to ensure adequate adaptation measures and the countries fail to reduce their carbon emissions, the study — Climate Change: A Risk Assessment — conducted by climate advisors to the governments in United States, United Kingdom and China, the world’s biggest carbon emitters, said.

They analysed data from across the world to arrive at the conclusions.

“The water stress will increase in coming years and will have implications on India’s food security,” said Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive officer of Council on Energy, Environment and Water, the Indian partner for the study funded by UK foreign office.

The authors have clearly outlined the northern part of India, including Delhi, Chandigarh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, as high impact zone of climate change in India.

In the report, they said, said high heat stress can have various implications, including restrictions on outdoor work and sports and not getting sound sleep.

Different scenarios presented in the report say the temperature could rise 8 degrees Celsius, crossing the 50-degree mark in cities like Delhi, Jaipur and Chandigarh during summer.

The study reiterated the fact that extreme rainfall will increase in India and sounded an alarm that frequency of floods will increase in the Gangetic plains.

Its implication will be on India’s food security with an estimated loss of up to US $200 billion per year by the turn of this century.

This is in tune with the assessment made by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.



The report for the first time also showed internal security risks arising because of climate change.

It is well documented that a reason for rise of IS in was back to back droughts and food crises, the study said.