MoST prepares report on climate vulnerability of states and districts

NEW DELHI: In a bid to tackle the impact of climate change, India prepared has prepared a report on climate vulnerability in its states and districts. This comes after India ranked 20 and was described as one of the most vulnerable country in the Climate Risk Index released in late January this year. The report had stated that India incurs losses of $9-10 billion annually, due to the extreme weather events.

The report has been designed after assessment undertaken by the Ministry of Science and Technology. IT involved active involvement and participation of governments of States and Union Territories. According to MoST, hands-on-training and capacity building activities helped in identifying vulnerable districts, which will ultimately help the policymakers in initiating suitable climate actions. Design and development of climate change adaptation projects based on these evaluations will benefit climate-vulnerable communities across India as well.

An official statement from the ministry said that climate vulnerability assessments for various areas and states had already existed, but it limited decision-making capabilities at policy and administrative levels because the states and districts could not be compared to each other. Therefore, it necessitated an assessment using a Common Vulnerability Framework.