Heat waves may come in way of achieving SDGs, reveals study

Tribune News Service

Karam Prakash

New Delhi, April 21

Climate change-induced heat-waves in India can hamper or even reverse the country’s progress in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) by putting the unprecedented burdens on public health, agriculture, and various socio-economic and cultural systems, a new study has revealed.  

An analytical evaluation of heat index (HI) with Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) shows that more than 90% of the country is at extremely cautious or dangerous levels of adversely impacting adaptive livelihood capacity, food grains yields, spread of vector-borne diseases and urban sustainability.

The observations have been in the study titled ‘Lethal heat waves are challenging India’s sustainable development’: published in a peer-reviewed journal ‘PLOS CLIMATE’. 

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom (UK).

According to the study, the trend analysis of the last 20 years from 2001–2021 on the SDG progress — with the mortality owing to the extreme weather events — has shown that extreme the weather events, slower the SDG progress. 

Most of the 11 SDGs India lags behind in are critically related to the climate action. India’s preparedness and performance on SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 13 (Climate Action) have already declined significantly.

The study indicates that the use of CVI — through which India assesses its vulnerability to climate change — may underestimate the actual burden of climate change concerning heat. Consequent upon that, the study suggested, India had to reconsider its assessment of climate vulnerabilities through CVI — to meet the SDGs.

The study found that the states categorised as ‘low’ in CVI rankings are in danger of Heat Index categories, implying that the heat waves are putting more people at extreme climate risk, across India, than estimated by the CVI.

“As the heat waves in India and the Indian subcontinent become recurrent and long-lasting, it is high time that climate experts and policymakers re-evaluate the metrics for assessing the country’s climate vulnerability,” reads the report.

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