Heatwaves to be more devastating than floods in future; economy to be hit

livemint.com:

Not only did heatwaves have a widespread affect in India this summer, including causing the death of around 100 people, they are increasingly expected to be more devastating and frequent than other extreme weather events such as floods as time passes by. This poses substantial risks to India’s economic growth, said climate experts, who do not consider heatwaves as natural disasters, but manmade ones. This assumes even more significance, given that the global temperature has already breached the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold limit earlier this year.

“I’d not call heatwaves a natural disaster from a scientific perspective. When we say natural, it means something happens due to various natural reasons, and heatwaves are not because of natural reasons. They are because of climate change," said Suruchi Bhadwal, a research fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri).

“(Reaseach) findings tell us that climate change is not natural; it is anthropogenic in nature, or human caused. Heatwaves must receive attention. They are increasing and becoming intense because of climate change.

Therefore, in any risk assessment that is done in the context of considering climate risk, heatwaves must be included as an element," Bhadwal explained. This is in line with the 15th Finance Commission’s refusal on Wednesday, 24 July, to include extreme heat on the list of natural disasters. “I feel the largest concern is going to be heatwaves in the near future compared to other events.

For example, flood happens or there’s heavy precipitation somewhere, it is location specific and wherever there’s a flood, people in that region get affected," said Bhadwal. In contrast, heatwaves have the potential to cover larger areas. For example, the effect