Can We ‘Runway’ From Climate Change?

The recent months have seen an explosion of initiatives that take steps in the direction of mapping the way of growth and development forward in a world facing the brunt of climate change. A resulting aspect of which is the reflection of the deteriorating health of our environment seen in the steep rise in natural calamities and disasters around the world, and especially in India. To put things in perspective, a 2019 report by the international think tank Germanwatch, has brought to light some particularly bad news for India. It says that between 1998 and 2017, India lost, on an average, 3,660 people every year because of extreme weather events.

Moreover, during the same time, the global losses due to climate change related natural calamities were pegged at a whopping $3.47 trillion with an estimated amount lost in India to be more than a few hundred billion dollars.

In addition, the country’s dependence on agriculture leaves it highly sensitive to extreme weather events. India derives a greater proportion of GDP (17%) from agriculture than the global average (4%) and the sector employs 47.2% of the population, compared to the global average of 30.7%. Hence, India must find solutions to make its economy less exposed, which can be traced back to policy changes that encourage the working population to switch to manufacturing rather than pursuing an agrarian source of income.

Another side to the story is the need of the hour to focus on the approach to the issue of climate change. Instead of having to resort to the ‘response, rehab, rebuild’ model, we should be striving to make long-term and broad-impact changes in our economy to reduce the negative impacts of growth on the environment. This is the only way to break the vicious-trap of destruction and re-development.