Is India Ready to Cope with a Changing Climate?
- Svea Shah
- Mar 31
- 4 min read
The Sustainable Futures Collaborative, an independent research organisation, recently published a paper titled “Is India Ready for a Warming World?: How Heat Resilience Measures Are Being Implemented for 11% of India’s Urban Population in Some of Its Most At-Risk Cities”, which analyses the inconsistent and weakly targeted long term actions against Climate Change in the country today.
Indian cities that are most vulnerable to extreme heat are not adequately prepared for worsening heatwaves and are relying mainly on short-term emergency measures, according to a new report by the independent climate research group Sustainable Futures Collaborative.
The report examines how nine major urban centers: Bengaluru, Delhi, Faridabad, Gwalior, Kota, Ludhiana, Meerut, Mumbai, and Surat, are responding to rising temperatures. These cities are home to over 11% of India’s urban population as per the 2011 Census and are considered highly susceptible to dangerous spikes in heat index levels as global temperatures rise.
Aditya Pillai was the lead researcher for this report. “Many of the long-term risk reduction measures we focus on will take several years to mature,” he said. “They must be implemented with urgency to prevent severe consequences, including increased mortality and economic losses, in the coming decades.”
Based on 88 interviews with government officials at city, district, and state levels, the study found that most cities prioritise immediate responses, such as ensuring drinking water availability, adjusting work schedules, and increasing hospital capacity during extreme heat events.
While these short-term strategies have played a role in establishing some basic measures to help citizens out, since India’s first Heat Action Plan (HAP) was introduced in 2013, the report warns that failure to implement long-term solutions could leave cities struggling to cope as heatwaves intensify.
Crucial long-term measures, such as improved cooling solutions for at-risk populations, such as those that work outdoors, insurance for lost work, better fire management, and upgrades to electricity infrastructure, are either missing or inadequately targeted, the report states. Other resilience-building efforts, like expanding tree cover, creating more shaded spaces, and installing rooftop solar panels, are often implemented without focusing on the most heat-exposed communities, and are often created to appease more privileged populations.
Alexandra Kassinis from Harvard University, who also helped formulate the paper, emphasised the growing threat of extreme heat and humidity, warning that “this will only get worse as global temperatures continue to rise.”
Their research indicates that most city-level heat responses are driven by emergency directives from national and state disaster management and health authorities. Meanwhile, Heat Action Plans, which should guide long-term adaptation strategies, remain weak and have limited impact on ground-level action. The health sector has made the most progress in implementing long-term measures, such as heat-specific training for medical personnel and systems to track heat-related deaths. However, the focus remains on treating heat-related illnesses rather than preventing them in the first place. “With rising global temperatures, it is critical to prepare for extreme heat and humidity conditions that have no historical precedent,” said Lucas Vargas Zeppetello, assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Beyond healthcare, other essential sectors like urban planning and labor protections lack sustained heat resilience strategies. “Apart from health system preparedness, there is little evidence of heat-related concerns being integrated into other crucial policy areas,” the report notes.
One reason short-term responses dominate is their relatively low cost. Officials find it easier to fund immediate measures through existing department budgets and state or national schemes. More than two-thirds of the interviewed officials said they had sufficient funding for current heat action plans. However, transitioning to long-term climate adaptation will require significant financial investment.
Institutional challenges further complicate long-term planning. Government officials cited difficulties such as poor coordination between agencies, staff shortages, limited technical expertise, and a lack of recognition of extreme heat as a serious policy issue. Many also lacked access to detailed climate data; only two of 42 respondents had information on future climate projections, making it difficult to plan for the most extreme heat events in a +1.5°C world.
Tamanna Dalal, a research associate at Sustainable Futures Collaborative, emphasised the importance of strengthening Heat Action Plans, stating that while they remain weak in driving on-the-ground action, it is high time to reinforce them as a key policy tool now, before it gets too late.
The report calls for a series of reforms to improve heat resilience. Recommendations include legally strengthening Heat Action Plans, using disaster mitigation funds for long-term heat adaptation projects, appointing dedicated heat officers in cities (who are specially trained to deliver a unified response to heat) , expanding cooling subsidies for vulnerable groups, and enhancing local government expertise in managing extreme heat. Additionally, the authors urge the creation of a national program to provide city and district officials with access to climate projections and a multi-year training initiative for key personnel in India’s most heat-exposed regions.
Without these changes, India will likely experience increasingly deadly heatwaves, as short-term emergency measures and communities’ ability to adapt fail to keep pace with rising temperatures. Written By: Svea Shah
