Q Why is it in News ?
A Environmental think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water has carried a first-of-its-kind district-level climate vulnerability assessment, or Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI).
Q What is Climate Vulnerability Index ?
A
- The Index takes into account certain indicators when assessing the preparedness of a state or district.
- It considers:
- Exposure (that is whether the district is prone to extreme weather events)
- Sensitivity (the likelihood of an impact on the district by the weather event)
- Adaptive capacity (what the response or coping mechanism of the district is)
Q What is significance of Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) ?
A
- Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) helps map critical vulnerabilities and plan strategies to enhance resilience and adapt by climate-proofing communities, economies and infrastructure.
- Instead of looking at climate extremes in isolation, the study looks at the combined risk of hydro-met disasters, which is floods, cyclones and droughts, and their impact.
- The study does not take into consideration other natural disasters such as earthquakes.
Q Why does India need a climate vulnerability index?
A
- According to Germanwatch’s 2020 findings, India is the seventh-most vulnerable country with respect to climate extremes.
- Extreme weather events have been increasing in the country such as supercyclone Amphan in the Bay of Bengal, which is now the strongest cyclone to be recorded in the country.
- Recent events such as the landslides and floods in Uttarakhand and Kerala, have also increased in the past decade.
- Further, the IPCC states that every degree rise in temperature will lead to a three per cent increase in precipitation, causing increased intensification of cyclones and floods.
Q What are the key findings of the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) ?
A According to CVI, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Bihar are most vulnerable to extreme climate events such as floods, droughts and cyclones in India.
- 183 hotspot districts are highly vulnerable to more than one extreme climate events
- 60% of Indian districts have medium to low adaptive capacity in handing extreme weather events – these districts don’t have robust plans in place to mitigate impact
- North-eastern states are more vulnerable to floods
- South and central are most vulnerable to extreme droughts
- 59 and 41 per cent of the total districts in the eastern and western states, respectively, are highly vulnerable to extreme cyclones.
Q Which are the Best performing states ?
A
- Kerala and West Bengal have performed well comparatively, despite both being coastal states and dealing with the threat of cyclones and floods annually.
- The reason why these states have performed better is that they have stepped up their climate action plans as well as preparedness to handle an extreme weather event.
Q What are the key recommendations of the assessment ?
A
- Develop a high-resolution Climate Risk Atlas (CRA) to map critical vulnerabilities
- Establish a centralised climate-risk commission to coordinate the environmental de-risking mission.
- Undertake climate-sensitivity-led landscape restoration focused on rehabilitating, restoring, and reintegrating natural ecosystems as part of the developmental process.
- Integrate climate risk profiling with infrastructure planning to increase adaptive capacity.
- Provide for climate risk-interlinked adaptation financing by creating innovative CVI-based financing instruments that integrate climate risks for an effective risk transfer mechanism.
