Climate change is fueling disasters all across the world, and India stands to lose a lot. We’re on the verge of becoming the world’s most populous country, and rising extreme weather occurrences are a huge impediment to long-term development. As a substantial portion of the world population is unfairly burdened by worsening climatic conditions, tropical countries like India are going to bear the brunt of negative consequences.
Details about according to World Bank, Indian heatwaves could soon witness over 3 crore global job losses
A new World Bank analysis confirms this, describing how intense heat waves have become more common in India over the last two decades. According to the report, the country may become one of the first in the world to face heat waves that “break the human survivability limit” in the near future.
India is one of the countries that has been disproportionately impacted by global warming. Debilitating summer loo gripped the country earlier this year, resulting in a record number of heat wave days across India. This year, India experienced eight times the number of heatwave days as usual, as well as five times the number of thunderstorms.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences recently stated that lightning strikes claimed 907 lives this year alone. This is rather surprising because the chances of being hit by one are quite low, demonstrating the increasing frequency of such implausible events. So far this year, extreme weather events have resulted in 2,183 deaths, nearly the highest toll in the last half-decade. Surprisingly, lightning and floods accounted for 78% of all fatalities this year.
According to the research “Climate Investment Opportunities in India’s Cooling Sector,” extreme heat waves are responsible for thousands of deaths across the country, as higher temperatures arrive earlier and linger for considerably longer periods of time.
“In April 2022, India was engulfed in a brutal early spring heat wave that ground the country to a halt, with temperatures in New Delhi exceeding 46°C. The month of March, which saw unusually high temperatures, was the hottest ever recorded “It stated.
The World Bank report also warned that rising temperatures in India could harm economic output, noting that 75% of the country’s workforce, or 38 crore people, rely on heat-exposed labor, often in potentially life-threatening temperatures.
“By 2030, India may contribute for 3.4 crores of the estimated 8 crore global job losses from heat stress-related productivity drop,” according to the paper.
According to the World Bank, lost labor due to increased heat and humidity might threaten up to 4.5% of India’s GDP by the end of this decade.
