Impact of climate change

 Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Impact of climate change

Posted On: 25 JUL 2024 1:32PM by PIB Delhi

As per the Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC), human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally

caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850-1900 level in the decade

of 2011-2020. The Working Group II in its contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC, dealing

with Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, has reported that worldwide climate change is increasingly

affecting marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems and ecosystem services, water and food security,

settlements and infrastructure, health and well-being, and economies and culture, especially through

compound stresses and events.

India’s Third National Communication submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC) in 2023 has reported that India is experiencing full range of climate change impacts,

ranging from floods and droughts to heatwaves and glacier melt. The impacts of climate change are observed

in sectors, biodiversity and forests; agriculture; water resources; coastal and marine ecosystems; human

health; gender; urban and infrastructure.

India’s climate actions across various sectors are embedded in various programme and schemes.

The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) provides the overarching framework for all

climate actions and comprises missions in specific areas of solar energy, enhanced energy

efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, sustaining Himalayan ecosystems, Green India, sustainable

agriculture, human health and strategic knowledge for climate change. All these Missions are

institutionalized and implemented by their respective Nodal Ministries/Departments, Further, thirtyfour States/Union Territories (UTs) have prepared their State Action Plans on Climate Change

(SAPCC) in line with NAPCC taking into account the State specific issues relating to climate

change. The responsibility of the implementation of the SAPCCs rest with the respective States.

 Under the National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change, projects worth Rs. 847.48 crore have

been sanctioned in 27 States / Union Territories. India’s Initial Adaptation Communication submitted

to UNFCCC in December 2023 indicates that the total adaptation relevant expenditure for the year

2021-22 was 5.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), growing from a share of 3.7 per

cent in 2015-16, which shows that the Government has been making consistent efforts to integrate

climate resilience and adaptation into development plans and spending a significant amount of

resources for adaptation, despite the competing demands especially from the social sector for

resources.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change,

Shri Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today