Climate change affects 85% Indians, says survey
Eighty-five per cent of people surveyed in India say they are already experiencing the effects of climate change, and more than a third of them have either already moved or considered moving because of extreme weather events such as severe heat, droughts and floods.
Ninety-one per cent of 2,178 adults surveyed between September 5 and November 1 last year by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and CVoter are “worried about global warming”.
Thirty-eight per cent had to go without enough clean drinking water for at least one day in the past year and 72 per cent experience electricity disruptions on a typical day.
Thirty-four per cent of the respondents said they have either already moved or considered moving because of extreme weather events such as severe heat, droughts, floods or others.
According to a report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, weather-related disasters triggered over half a million (above five lakh) internal displacements in India in 2023 and around 2.5 million (25 lakh) in 2022.
Severe heat waves have impacted a large number of people in parts of India for three years in a row, affecting health, water availability, agriculture, power generation and other sectors of the economy.
Deadly floods left a trail of destruction in the Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand last year. A glacial lake outburst flood in Sikkim in October led to the collapse of a hydroelectric dam, killed more than 100 people, and affected more than 88,000.
While 86 per cent of the respondents favour India’s commitment to achieving netzero carbon emissions by 2070, 78 per cent say the government should be doing more to address global warming.