World Bank : India heading for major climate crisis

A new World Bank report says that India would be battling major climate crisis by the turn of the century

A new World Bank report says that India would be battling major climate crisis, if the global temperatures are allowed to rise by four degree celsius by turn of the century.

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In a report, Turn Down the Heat, released on Wednesday, the bank said that temperature rise of two degree celsius may happen in next 20-30 years, much before the expected time-line of 2050.

And it would cause widespread food and water shortages and could unfold, together with prolonged droughts, unprecedented heat-waves, more intense rainfall and flooding, and a significant threat to energy production, the report said.

The report also said many regions in India - coastal and central - were already witnessing warming trends, and its impact on changing rainfall patterns, declining snowfall, retreating glaciers and declining ground water was visible.

World Bank’s India director Onno Ruhl said that the bank would like to push the climate change agenda more and like the government to adopt climate change adoption policies.

On being asked whether the World Bank in India had promoted climate change-causing policies, Ruhl said that in its long history the bank may have committed some mistakes.