Dr. Avnish Jolly, New Delhi, 15th May, 2009 : India and Britain have announced five new projects to assess the impact of climate change in India and to identify and develop adaptation strategies. This was announced at the first Indo-UK Programme on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation-Phase II workshop in Capital. This programme assessed the impacts of climate change on water resources, agriculture, forests, industry, sea level and human health. The five projects are: linking water and agriculture in river basins: impacts of climate change , development and dissemination of high resolution climate change scenarios for India , state-level vulnerability and adaptation assessment, Madhya Pradesh , state-level vulnerability assessment and adaptation strategies, Orissa , socio-economic impacts of climate extremes.
This is the 2nd phase of a collaborative research programme that follows a major assessment of the impacts of climate change on India, carried out by Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, GOI. The projects in the second phase will develop improved scenarios to predict the impacts of climate change for India up to 2050. Particularly, they will look at the impacts of climate change on water resources, agriculture and forestry, and the socio-economic effects of climate extremes.
Two regional projects will be developed in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh to assess impacts and vulnerability and develop adaptation options for agriculture, forestry, water resources and heat waves. Britain has committed 500,000 pounds for the second phase of the study.
On this occasion David Warrilow, Head of Climate Science and International Evidence of UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said that Climate change will pose increasing threats across the world. India, in common with many developing countries, is particularly vulnerable to changing patterns of rainfall, including droughts and floods and other extreme events. These projects will help India to assess the risks of climate and develop adaptation strategies.