Delhi, Mumbai will be 5 degrees Celsius warmer by 2080: Greenpeace
Premium- Delhi's annual maximum temperature will leap to 45.97 degrees Celsius in the 2080-99 period and can go up to 48.19 degrees Celsius in 'some extreme years'
Delhi and Mumbai's mean annual temperature will be five degrees Celsius higher during the 2080-99 period as compared to the 1995-2014 period if global carbon dioxide gas' emissions double by 2050, according to Greenpeace India's latest projection. The environmental NGO said that Delhi's annual maximum temperature (the median of June month record from 1995 to 2014) stands at 41.93 degrees Celsius. It will leap to 45.97 degrees Celsius in the 2080-99 period and can go up to 48.19 degrees Celsius in "some extreme years".
The new heatwave projections are based on Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change's sixth assessment report.
The report added that Chennai will be four degrees Celsius warmer between 2080-99 period. The city's annual maximum temperature will increase from 35.13 degrees Celsius at present to 38.78 degrees Celsius.
Such a drastic and rapid increase in temperature will mean heatwave, and irreparable damage to agriculture and wildlife risking food and nutritional security, Greenpeace India said.
According to the NGO, inland cities are at a higher risk of heatwaves in the absence of regulation by oceans and a higher temperature range than coastal areas. The impaling temperature rise is expected to severely impact citizens particularly in cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Jaipur, and Kolkata which share similar temperature patterns.
Greenpeace India's new heatwave projections are based on Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change's sixth assessment report. The IPCC is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.
Its sixth assessment has been published in three parts with the first in August 2021, the second in February 2022, and the third in April 2022.