Unlike the West, which is economically better equipped to handle
climate change and its repercussions, its countries like India and China which will bear the brunt of disasters caused by rising emissions and a warmer planet. Temperatures in three Indian cities Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi in the last five decades have seen a steady rise. In Chennai alone they have risen by an astonishing 0.9 degree Celsius since 1960-70.
This rise in temperatures has led to a higher incidences of
natural disasters -- storms, floods and droughts -- which have increased from 32 in the 1960s to 110 in the current decade.
In the 1900s natural disasters affected a million people. Thanks to climate change, they now affect 596 million people, that’s close to half the population in the country. The cost of the damages too has gone up. In the current decade, damages caused natural disasters are expected to touch $53.6 billion, a significant jump from the $19.9 billion in previous decade.
