Damage Caused by Rain
India suffered huge economic losses from floods and storms in 2023 as climate change has made these events more frequent. The country was only second to China in the Asian continent in this regard, according to the recently released The State of the Climate in Asia 2021 report.
Floods and storms accounted for 80 per cent of the natural disasters that struck Asia in 2021. Asian countries incurred financial losses worth $35.6 billion (nearly 2.9 lakh crores) in 2021 because of natural disasters. Flooding was the event with “by far the greatest impact in Asia in terms of fatalities and economic damage.”
This showed that the economic impact of such disasters is on the rise compared to the average of the last twenty years, according to the report released November 14, 2022.
The report published by the World Meteorological Organization and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said China suffered the highest economic loss in Asia ($18.4 billion) after flooding.
Also read: Here is how India counts loss and damage due to extreme weather
India suffered a total loss of $3.2 billion from flooding. The country faced heavy rains and flash floods during the monsoon season between June and September 2021.
These events resulted in about 1,300 casualties and damaged crops and properties, the report said.
Similarly, storms also caused significant economic damage, especially in India ($4.4 billion), followed by China ($3 billion) and Japan ($2 billion), the report stated.
During 2021, India experienced five cyclonic storms with maximum sustained wind speeds of ≥ 34 knots.
The extremely severe cyclonic storm Tauktae (May 14-May 19) that formed over the Arabian Sea during the pre-monsoon season was the most devastating. The storm claimed more than 140 lives across western India.
This was followed by Severe Cyclonic Storm Yaas (May 23-May 28). It hit West Bengal and northern Odisha, causing damages worth Rs 20,000 crore and Rs 600 crore, respectively.
Cyclone Gulab (September 24-September 28), which landed on the Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts, accumulated damages to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore.
Cyclone Shaheen was formed from the remnants of Gulab and caused heavy rainfall in Gujarat. Finally, the year ended with Cyclonic Storm Jawad, causing heavy rainfall over the eastern coast.
Additionally, in 2021, thunderstorms and lightning claimed around 800 lives in different parts of the country, the report highlighted.
Investing in adaptation
ESCAP’s Asia-Pacific Disaster Reports of 2021 and 2022 estimated that India would need an annual investment in adaptation measures at $46.3 billion. It is estimated to be 1.7 per cent of India’s GDP.
“The investment in adaptation is much lower than the annual average loss from disasters, which shows us how much economic losses we could be saving by investing in adaptation measures,” Sanjay K Srivastava, chief of Disaster Risk Reduction at ESCAP, told DTE.
Generally, comparison to the GDP reflects the capacity of a country to invest in adaptation. Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries always fought for this by comparing loss and damage after disasters to the GDP to reflect the vulnerability, Srivastava added.
Some adaptation priorities that require high investment include resilient infrastructure, improving dry land agriculture, resilient water infrastructure, multi-hazard early warning systems and nature-based solutions.
“For Indian states, it depends on the risk context. For coastal states with an increased risk of cyclone surges, nature-based solutions assume significance. In the coastal states, protecting mangroves could help cushion the impact of storms,” Srivastava said.
India does not have a separate adaptation fund, but the money is embedded in several schemes by the agriculture, rural and environmental sectors.
For example, flagship projects such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme, which had an annual budget of $13 billion in 2020, should address adaptation in disaster-prone areas. Around 70 per cent of its budget is marked to go into natural resource management and to build resilient infrastructure, Srivastava added.
Warming is particularly strong in the Arabian Sea and in the Kuroshio Current system. These regions are warming more than three times faster than the global mean upper-ocean warming rate, the State of the Climate in Asia 2021 report also highlighted.
Ocean warming could contribute to sea level rise, alter storm paths and ocean currents and increase stratification, the report warned.
“Upper-ocean warming is important because it directly affects the atmosphere in terms of convection, winds, cyclones and so on”, Raghu Murtugudde, visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay’s department of Climate Studies, told DTE.
The deep ocean does not affect the atmosphere directly, Murtugudde added.
The Arabian Sea is unique because it has pathways to receive excess heat through atmospheric tunnels and bridges. Mixed warm water from various oceans is pumped into it.
However, this is not the case with Kuroshio Current system. The current system takes warm water from the tropics and stronger winds force more heat into the current, Murtugudde explained.
The report also said the northeast monsoon rainfall experienced last year was alarmingly high.
“The seasonal rainfall over southern peninsular India during the northeast monsoon was exceptionally above normal (171 per cent of the long-term average) and was the highest (579.1 millimetre) since 1901,” the report read.
During the season, many low-pressure systems (wind speed less than 17 knots) formed in the south and adjoining the central Bay of Bengal.
These systems moved in a westerly/north-westerly direction and caused large amounts of rainfall, the report explained.
Murtugudde attributed this to La Nina. “The last two years were also La Nina years. During this time, the pressure patterns set up in India go from North to South, which drives circulations from Eurasia and China,” he added.
This can cause excessive rainfall patterns over parts of India, particularly in the Southern Peninsular, which gets the Northeast monsoon. The excess last year was related to the La Nina pressure pattern, he said.
Tremors in Delhi-NCR again after fresh quake in Nepal
An earthquake of magnitude of 5.4 occurred November 12, 2022 at 7.57 pm in Nepal, the National Center for Seismology (NCS), the nodal agency of the Government of India for monitoring earthquake activity in the country, said. Consequently, tremors were felt across the National Capital Region and Delhi simultaneously.
The Press of Trust of India reported that no casualties or immediate damage were reported. This is because, according to researchers at Michigan Tech, earthquakes ranging in intensity from 2.5 to 5.4 are often felt about 500,000 times a year worldwide but only cause little damage.
The NCS listed the extent and direction of the Nepal earthquake in India on Saturday night:
- 212 km southeast of Joshimath, Uttarakhand
- 271 km north of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
- 293 km north-northwest of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh
- 297 km east-southeast of Rishikesh, Uttarakhand
- 302 km east-southeast of Haridwar, Uttarakhand
Earlier on November 12, another earthquake occurred in Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand at 4:25 pm at a magnitude of 3.4 with a depth of 5 km. The direction and extent of the afternoon quake were the following:
- 202 km east of Kurukshetra, Haryana
- 204 km northeast of Noida, Uttar Pradesh
- 212 km northeast of New Delhi
- 219 km northeast of Faridabad, Haryana
- 227 km southeast of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
Tremors from a Nepal earthquake were felt three times this week in India, especially the north. On November 9, a magnitude 4.1 earthquake hit the neighbouring country and on November 10, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake was felt.
For the Nepal earthquake on November 10, a preliminary report by the NIC said: “The epicentre lies in western Nepal which is 85 km southeast of Dharchula (Uttarakhand); 90 km east-southeast of Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand); 140 km northeast of Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh); 150 km east-southeast of Almora (Uttarakhand); 260 km north of Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh); 380 km east-southeast of Delhi and 450 km west-northwest of Kathmandu (Nepal).”
The preliminarily report on the catastrophe that had killed six people in Nepal November 10, added that: “The earthquake is felt from Vadodara in the west to Siliguri in eastern Uttar Pradesh to Vijayawada in the south.”
More than 260 felt reports due to this earthquake, have been received from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal through the NCS website and Mobile App having intensity Latitude (° E) 4 ranging from I to IV on Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) Scale, it added.
In another related development, an earthquake of magnitude 5.7 occurred at 10:31 pm near Charu village, West Siang, Arunachal Pradesh, November 11.
“The epicentre was 165 km north-northeast of Itanagar and 365 km northeast of Guwahati at 28.400 N and 94.40 E, at a shallow focal depth of 10 km,” the NCS said.
COP27: Developing countries need $2 trillion annually to tackle climate change, says report
Developing and emerging economies, except China, will need $2 trillion per year by 2030 for energy transition, adaptation resilience, loss and damage and sustainable agriculture, according to a new report.
One trillion of the same should originate from domestic sources, stated the Finance for climate action: Scaling up investment for climate and development report, launched at the COP27 climate summit November 9, 2022.
The remaining one trillion should come from external sources — developed countries or multilateral development banks.
Developed countries pledged to provide $100 billion in climate finance to developing countries by 2020. But they are yet to meet the commitment.
Failure in delivering the pledged finance has eroded trust, the analysis said.
Emerging markets and developing economies, except China, require a total annual investment of $1trillion by 2025 and $2.4 trillion by 2030.
The world needs a breakthrough and a new roadmap on climate finance that can mobilise $1 trillion per year in external finance that will be needed by 2030,” the report read.
The report was prepared by a new independent high-level expert group on climate finance. The group was launched in July 2021 by the presidencies of COP26 and COP27 and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions.
The report analysed the financial structures required to deliver the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming, Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute, London, said during the launch.
“You should not and cannot disentangle climate and development,” Stern said. China was exempted because it does not need external climate finance, Stern added.
The report covered three broad areas — energy transition, adaptation resilience and sustainable agriculture — that restore damage inflicted by human activity to natural capital and Natural capital covers the world’s stocks of natural assets such as geology, soil, air and water. Stern said a third of the funds must channel into each of the three broad areas.
Mobilising private finance can be crucial in unlocking the funds needed, the report pointed out.
Mobilisation is different from providing finance. The latter (providing finance) is the money one country gives another country or a multilateral development bank (MDB) or multilateral climate funds.
Mobilisation, on the other hand, uses the current resources to leverage more additional finance.
The report also called for revamping the role of MDBs.The financial flows from these institutions need to be tripled over the next five years.
“The flow of finance from these institutions should triple from about $60 billion annually to around $180 billion annually within the next five years,” Stern said in a statement.
This requires a strong sense of direction and support from the country shareholders and real leadership from the top of these institutions, Stern added.
The authors urged developed countries to double concessional finance by 2025 from 2019 levels while expanding the envelope of low-cost finance through innovative ways — including special drawing rights (SDR), voluntary carbon markets, philanthropy and guarantees.
SDR is an international reserve created to supplement the official reserves of the International Monetary Fund member countries.
At CoP27, there were unanimous calls to increase SDR allocations from 20 per cent to 30 per cent. The report also raised concerns over rising debt burden. “We do not want to saddle them (especially poor and vulnerable countries) with more debt,” said Stern.
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