World Bank Report on Climate Change Impacts

Why in news?

World Bank has released South Asia’s Hotspots - The Impact of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Living Standards report.

What are the findings of the World bank report?

• A World Bank report has estimated the impacts of climate change on the GDP and living standards in India and region.
• The report found that rising temperatures and changing monsoon rainfall patterns from climate change could cost India 2.8% of GDP.
• Which would also depress the living standards of nearly half the country’s population by 2050.
• It looks at six countries in South Asia and how projected changes in temperature and precipitation will affect living standards in these countries.
• The report has used annual household consumption as a proxy for living standards, and identifies “hotspots” districts where these changes will have a notable effect on living standards.

What are the concerns spotlighted by the report?

• For the region, the report has found that India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be adversely affected by these changes, while Afghanistan and Nepal will benefit as they are relatively cold.
• Based on the rise in average temperatures over the past six decades and the projected rise, the report predicts more warming inland and less warming in coastal areas beyond 2050.
• For India, it has projected that living conditions in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh will decline by more than 9%, followed by Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
• The report states approximately 600 million people in India today live in locations that would become moderate or severe hotspots by 2050 under the carbon-intensive scenario.

What are the scenarios taken into account by the report?

• The report looks at two scenarios namely Climate-sensitive and Carbon-intensive.
• Climate-Sensitive - It represents a future “in which some collective action is taken to limit greenhouse gas emissions and global annual average temperatures increase 2.4°C by 2100 relative to pre-industrial levels.
• Carbon-Intensive - It represents a future in which no actions are taken to reduce emissions and global annual average temperatures increase 4.3°C by 2100 relative to pre-industrial levels.

How will such scenarios play out in India?

• The report states the information will be useful for designing a social welfare programme at the national level, and for determining which investments would be most needed in each community.
• If no measures are taken, average temperatures in India are predicted to increase by 1.5-3°C by 2050.
• If preventive measures are taken along the lines of the Paris Agreement, India’s average annual temperatures are expected to rise by 1-2°C by 2050, the World Bank report states.

Source: The Indian Express