Climate Change and Disasters: An Indian Perspective

Climate change will have a profound impact on human and natural systems (Ninan and Inoue 2017). It will affect species, habitats, and ecosystem functioning as well as lives and livelihoods. It will not only impede economic growth but also jeopardise achievement of the sustainable development goals. The Fifth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes that climate change in the recent few decades has resulted in an unprecedented rise in global average land and ocean temperatures, the melting of glaciers, rising sea levels, and an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural calamities and extreme weather events (IPCC 2014a). If countries including India continue to pursue a Business as Usual (BAU) development path, average global air temperatures are likely to rise to between 2 °C and 4.5 °C or higher by the turn of the twenty-first century. The Stern Review (2007) suggests that with a 5 °C to 6 °C warming, an average of 5 to 10 per cent loss in global gross domestic product (GDP) is possible, with poor countries suffering losses of more than 10 per cent of GDP. In the absence of adaptation efforts climate change will have adverse short-and long-term impacts on economies, ecosystems, and societies.