Early signs of climate extremes in 2024 are evident with deferred snowfall across the North and North-East valleys. As climate crisis is nearing tipping point, blistering hot days, incessant or erratic rains and intense droughts are going to be the new normal. In India, lives and livelihoods are getting ravaged.

The window to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius is closing, and India’s vulnerability is increasing, with more than three-quarters of its districts being hotspots for extreme events. What should India do to step up its climate actions?

First, it should mandate the establishment of a Climate Risk Observatory (CRO), a risk-informed decision-making toolkit for decision-makers at the national, State, district and city levels under its National Resilience Programme. Such an observatory should identify, assess, and project chronic and acute risks at a hyper-granular level to better prepare against climate extremities like urban heat stress, water stress, crop loss, vector-borne diseases, biodiversity collapse, and ecosystem collapse. Real-time data on extreme events like climate-induced disasters should drive CRO. It can provide focused information related to response, preparedness, and relief to the authorities and citizens concerned.

CRO should continuously map and monitor the regions using earth systems change simulation, empowering decision-makers with the timely, actionable, quantitative insights they need to succeed in an era of climate change. The Maharashtra Government is already developing such a mechanism by devising India’s first Multi-hazard Risk Atlas for Mumbai city that would be integrated into its modern command and control centre.

Climate fund

Second, to finance climate action at scale, States must establish an Infrastructure Climate Fund (ICF) to support sustained investment into climate-resilient critical infrastructure and foster locally-led climate actions. Such a fund will expand the market’s capacity to respond to climate catastrophes and negate risks from public and private balance sheets. Moreover, ICF can be geared towards enhancing the market’s capacity to absorb increased risk at optimal return periods. ICF should aim to pave the way for a future where traditional markets can confidently absorb and navigate risks, contributing to greater economic stability across climate-sensitive sectors. Aligned with India’s economic trajectory and infrastructure investments, it needs to be climate-resilient, and a risk-financing instrument like ICF should become a national imperative.

Finally, climate proofing of built-in and planned infrastructure needs renewed focus. The India Industry Report states that built-in infrastructure worth more than $1.4 trillion would have been invested in India by 2023. Infrastructure is intrinsic to a country’s developmental agenda. Estimates by World Bank Group show that investment in climate-resilient can fetch benefits worth $4.2 trillion for countries like India. Numbers speak volumes. India’s thought leadership led Collation for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) can mainstream the climate-proofing of infrastructure across its member nations by driving technological, system (policy and action) and financial innovations. Infrastructure can be made climate and disaster-resilient.

India needs a renewed focus to climate-proof its population and growth narrative; any miss now can cost decades of developmental backlog. Climate has changed forever, and its curve will not flatten without concerted effort.

The writer is Sector Head of Climate Change and Sustainability at IPE Global. Views are personal

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