<p>Mumbai: Nine cities of India: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Faridabad, Gwalior, Kota, Ludhiana, Meerut and Surat - which together make up over 11 per cent of country's urban population - are most at-risk cities to future heat.</p><p>A new report by the New Delhi-based research organisation, Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC), titled ‘Is India Ready for a Warming World? How Heat Resilience Measures Are Being Implemented for 11% of India's Urban Population in Some of Its Most At-Risk Cities’, examines the issue in detail.</p><p>The report finds that while all nine cities focus on immediate responses to heat waves, long-term actions remain rare, and where they do exist, they are poorly targeted. Without effective long-term strategies, India is likely to see a higher number of heat-related deaths due to more frequent, intense, and prolonged heat waves in the coming years, according to a press statement. </p><p>The authors of the report are Aditya Valiathan Pillai (SFC and King’s College London), Tamanna Dalal (SFC), Ishan Kukreti (SFC), Alexandra Kassinis (Harvard University), Lucas Vargas Zeppetello (University of California, Berkeley, Escandita Tewari (SFC), Navroz K. Dubash (SFC and Princeton University).</p>.Earth's 10 hottest years have been the last 10.<p>“These findings paint a dire picture of India’s unpreparedness for an increasingly unlivable future that is already at its doorstep. The current reliance on short-term relief measures, while necessary, will not be enough as temperatures continue to rise. We need immediate, structural interventions to redesign our cities and build institutions that safeguard vulnerable populations,” said Tamanna Dalal (SFC).</p><p>“The cornerstone to India’s policy response on heat, Heat Action Plans (HAPs), remain weak in driving action on ground, but now is the time to strengthen and embed them in the Indian state- to serve as a critical tool to identify at-risk areas and populations and drive long-term resilience efforts before the crisis deepens,” added Aditya Valiathan Pillai.</p><p>“These findings are a warning about the shape of things to come. With the ongoing retrenchment of global decarbonisation efforts, it will fall upon countries in the Global South to rapidly adapt to a hotter, more dangerous future. While progress on systems to respond to ongoing heat waves is both necessary and urgent, equal attention needs to be paid to gearing up for the future,” said Pillai.</p><p>“With increasing global mean temperatures, it's imperative to prepare for extremely dangerous combinations of temperature and humidity that have no historical precedent to become more common. Pre-emptive, long-term strategies for dealing with heat are central to this effort,” added Lucas Vargas Zeppetello.</p>
<p>Mumbai: Nine cities of India: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Faridabad, Gwalior, Kota, Ludhiana, Meerut and Surat - which together make up over 11 per cent of country's urban population - are most at-risk cities to future heat.</p><p>A new report by the New Delhi-based research organisation, Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC), titled ‘Is India Ready for a Warming World? How Heat Resilience Measures Are Being Implemented for 11% of India's Urban Population in Some of Its Most At-Risk Cities’, examines the issue in detail.</p><p>The report finds that while all nine cities focus on immediate responses to heat waves, long-term actions remain rare, and where they do exist, they are poorly targeted. Without effective long-term strategies, India is likely to see a higher number of heat-related deaths due to more frequent, intense, and prolonged heat waves in the coming years, according to a press statement. </p><p>The authors of the report are Aditya Valiathan Pillai (SFC and King’s College London), Tamanna Dalal (SFC), Ishan Kukreti (SFC), Alexandra Kassinis (Harvard University), Lucas Vargas Zeppetello (University of California, Berkeley, Escandita Tewari (SFC), Navroz K. Dubash (SFC and Princeton University).</p>.Earth's 10 hottest years have been the last 10.<p>“These findings paint a dire picture of India’s unpreparedness for an increasingly unlivable future that is already at its doorstep. The current reliance on short-term relief measures, while necessary, will not be enough as temperatures continue to rise. We need immediate, structural interventions to redesign our cities and build institutions that safeguard vulnerable populations,” said Tamanna Dalal (SFC).</p><p>“The cornerstone to India’s policy response on heat, Heat Action Plans (HAPs), remain weak in driving action on ground, but now is the time to strengthen and embed them in the Indian state- to serve as a critical tool to identify at-risk areas and populations and drive long-term resilience efforts before the crisis deepens,” added Aditya Valiathan Pillai.</p><p>“These findings are a warning about the shape of things to come. With the ongoing retrenchment of global decarbonisation efforts, it will fall upon countries in the Global South to rapidly adapt to a hotter, more dangerous future. While progress on systems to respond to ongoing heat waves is both necessary and urgent, equal attention needs to be paid to gearing up for the future,” said Pillai.</p><p>“With increasing global mean temperatures, it's imperative to prepare for extremely dangerous combinations of temperature and humidity that have no historical precedent to become more common. Pre-emptive, long-term strategies for dealing with heat are central to this effort,” added Lucas Vargas Zeppetello.</p>