Climate impacts in India are becoming increasingly visible. As parts of the country, including Assam and Bihar, faced floods, drought was declared in Maharashtra, while others like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are facing drought-like situations. Even India’s cities have not been spared by these climate impacts. The Reserve Bank of India has warned that extreme heat and humidity could put up to 4.5% of India’s GDP at risk by 2030 through lost labour hours. While these disasters differ in geography and hazard, together they underscore a common reality. Climate change is no longer a future environmental challenge. It is reshaping India’s economy, infrastructure and development in real time. At the same time, the Indian government has been taking steps towards adapting to these challenges. Six of the nine missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change focus on adaptation, and 34 states and Union Territories have prepared State Action Plans on Climate Change. The latest Economic Survey tabled in January, classifies spending equal to 5.6% of GDP in 2021–22 as “adaptation and resilience-related”, up from 3.7% in 2015–16. While these investments and interventions are necessary, some fundamental questions receive far less attention: adaptation for whom and how? And who gets to make these decisions? These questions become particularly important as India prepares its first National Adaptation Plan (NAP), a roadmap that will shape public investment in climate resilience over the coming decades. This makes it worth examining how India should adapt to climate change and which…This article was originally published on Mongabay
