Context: 

February 2023 was India’s hottest month since 1901. The Lancet’s July 2021 study found that over five million people died on average per year between 2000 and 2019 due to extreme temperatures. 

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report emphasizes that every increment of global warming leads to more frequent extreme heat events.

Image Source: The Hindu

How much has the temperature increased? 

• A Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) study:
  • India shows that temperature in India has been steadily increasing during both summer and winter. 
  • The recorded increase in maximum and minimum temperature over 30 years (1990-2019) is up to 0.9⁰C and 0.5⁰C, respectively.
  • Summer and winter temperatures have increased by 0.5⁰C to 0.9⁰C in many districts.

• A joint report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre:
  • It state that an extreme-heat event that was likely to happen only once in every 50 years without the influence of humans on climate is now likely to happen five times with human-induced climate change in the same period. 
  • If the warming is under 2⁰C, such events will occur 14 times, if warming is kept under 4⁰C, they will occur almost 40 times.

How much hotter can it get? 

• CSTEP Study 30-year period of 2021-2050:
  • Climate projections for India show that summer maximum and winter minimum temperatures will increase in the future.
  • The increase in temperature will have adverse effects on plant growth, ecological systems, and the carbon economy.

• Department of Science and Technology report:
  • It reported an alarming decline in DTR between 1991 and 2016 over the north-west, parts of the Gangetic plain, and central India agro-climatic zones.
    • The diurnal temperature range (DTR) is the variation between high air temperature and low temperature during a single day.
  • The decline in DTR increases the risk of heat stress, drought, crop failure, and higher morbidity and mortality.

• IFRC Joint Report:
  • Heat waves could surpass the human threshold to withstand them physiologically and socially, leading to large-scale suffering, death, and migration.
  • Urbanization and warming will increase the number of people at risk of extreme heat.

• International Labour Organisation Report:
  • India is expected to lose 5.8% of working-hours in 2030 due to heat stress.
  • The loss in the agriculture and construction sectors will be 9.04%, which translates to 34 million full-time jobs.
  • Future death rates caused by extreme heat could be staggeringly high by the end of the century, comparable in magnitude to all cancers or all infectious diseases.

What should be done? 

• It is imperative that States step up and share responsibility with other stakeholders to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction through improved early warning systems, creation of public awareness, and formulation of heat action plans.
• Innovative strategies also need to be considered to combat extreme heat, such as 
  1. Emergency cooling centres (similar to the ones in Toronto and Paris)
  2. Survival guides that are strategically displayed to survive extreme heat or heat waves (like in Athens)
  3. White roofs (Los Angeles)
  4. Green rooftops (Rotterdam)
  5. Self shading tower blocks (Abu Dhabi)
  6. Green corridors (Medellin).
• It is crucial to prepare district-level heat hotspot maps so that different departments of a State and/or district can design long-term measures to reduce deaths due to extreme heat.

News Source: The Hindu