The summer of 2024 has shattered heat records, starkly illustrating the harsh realities of our warming planet. In India alone, the heat-wave has claimed over 100 lives and caused more than 40,000 cases of heatstroke in recent months, according to data from India’s Health Ministry. This extreme weather event has further burdened the poor and vulnerable, exacerbating the social and economic toll of disasters.
While risk emanating from a warming planet is global, adaptation is always local, and resilience is specific to the people, community and ecosystem. In the vulnerable context, an inclusive approach to climate change adaptation, emphasising ‘a just transition’ is the way forward. India’s National Adaptation Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention to Climate Change (2023) underscores this strategic focus.
When extreme weather events intersect with multi-dimensional poverty, vulnerabilities already on the threshold of tipping points reach closer to their limit. The state of Bihar in India exemplifies this challenge. NITI Aayog’s 2021 National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) baseline report identifies Bihar as having the highest proportion of people who are multidimensionally poor. Adaptation strategies demand a convergence of diverse approaches ranging from economic incentives and robust policy frameworks to locally driven interventions.
Understanding the context of risk and vulnerabilities is fundamental to any policy response. Monitoring and mapping are key to target at risk vulnerable communities to embark upon ‘a just transition’ adaptation policy. This foresight is crucial for understanding the evolving risks of floods, droughts, heatwaves and tropical cyclones, allowing for anticipatory actions for early warning for the changing hazard landscape.
The strategy has to move from sector to nexus approach to capitalise on inter- and cross sectoral linkages and synergies. This is important to avoid compound and cascading impacts across the sectors when disaster strikes. Adaptation technologies enable a ‘just transition’ pathway while addressing risk mapping and resilience building and responding to the climate extremes. Adaptation technologies comprise three clusters: science-intensive, engineering-based, and data science and risk analytics.
Scientists and governments can play a crucial role in closing the adaptation gap with advanced technology, leading a just transition in adaptation and fostering collaborative solutions for equitable climate resilience. A just transition approach built on adaptation tech applications in the multi-dimensional poverty context is key to its successful implementation. A dedicated centre for climate change adaptation technology is important to promote research, knowledge generation and capacity building in India’s most vulnerable context with focus on inclusion and climate justice.
