The Climate Transparency Report 2022, compiled by an international partnership of organisations, was released on October 20.
Key findings
- India suffered an income loss of $159 billion, 5.4% of its gross domestic product, in the service, manufacturing, agriculture, and construction sectors due to extreme heat in 2021.
- Heat exposure in the country led to the loss of 167 billion potential labour hours, a 39% increase from 1990–1999.
- Labour productivity in India is projected to decline by 5% from the 1986–2006 reference period if global temperatures increase by 1.5°C.
- The decline in labour productivity will be 2.1 times more if the global temperatures increase by 2.5°C, and 2.7 times at a 3°C scenario.
- Between 2016–2021, extreme events such as cyclones, flash floods, floods, and landslides caused damage to crops in over 36 million hectares, a $3.75 billion loss for farmers in the country.
- The annual damage from river flooding in the country is likely to increase by around 49% at 1.5°C of warming.
- The damage from cyclones will increase by 5.7%. Precipitation is projected to increase by 6% from the reference period of 1986–2006, at 1.5°C of warming.
- Under a 3°C warming scenario, precipitation will increase by three times the precipitation anticipated at 1.5°C of warming.
- The rainfall pattern in India has changed in the past 30 years, impacting many economic activities such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
- Earth’s global surface temperature has increased by around 1.1° C compared with the average in 1850–1900.
- To address climate change, countries adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015 to limit global temperature rise in this century to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels.
- Extreme heat is defined as summertime temperatures that are much hotter and/or humid than average.
- Because some places are hotter than others, this depends on what’s considered average for a particular location at that time of year. Humid and muggy conditions can make it seem hotter than it really is.
