New Delhi, March 31 (IANS) The effects of climate change are already visible across the world, specially among vulnerable population of countries like India, the new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said Monday.
“The effects of climate change are already occurring on all continents and across the oceans. The world, in many cases, is ill-prepared for a changing climate,” the report said.
The report ‘Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability’ from United Nation’s IPCC details the impacts of climate change to date, the future risks from a changing climate and the opportunities for effective action to reduce risks.
Identifying vulnerable people, industries and ecosystems around the world, it finds that risk from a changing climate comes from vulnerability and exposure.
“India is among countries with high vulnerability as it has a large number of poor people. Issues like food security and unpredictable monsoons are issues which are directly affected by climate change,” said Surendra Kumar, a Delhi University professor and one of the authors of the report, at a press conference.
Elaborating on the economic aspects of climate change on vulnerable populations, he gave an example where the report mentions that in countries like India, tourism, specially those in coastal areas, can be affected due to climate change.
“The frequency and the intensity of natural calamities like the Uttarakhand floods and the Odisha cyclone are going to be more. This will start affecting a large number of people,” he said.
The report, which was released in Yokohama in Japan, however, concludes that there are opportunities to respond to such risks, though the risks will be difficult to mange with high levels of warming.
It said that responding to climate change involves making choices about risks in a changing world.
Aromar Revi, director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, said: “Adaptation to reduce the risks from a changing climate is now beginning to occur.”