Climate change affects 85% Indians, says survey

New Delhi: Eighty-five per cent of people surveyed in India say they are already experiencing the effects of climate change, and more than a third of them have either already moved or considered moving because of extreme weather events such as severe heat, droughts and floods.

Ninety-one per cent of 2,178 adults surveyed between September 5 and November 1 last year by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and CVoter are “worried about global warming”.

Thirty-eight per cent had to go without enough clean drinking water for at least one day in the past year and 72 per cent experience electricity disruptions on a typical day.

Thirty-four per cent of the respondents said they have either already moved or considered moving because of extreme weather events such as severe heat, droughts, floods or others.

According to a report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, weather-related disasters triggered over half a million (above five lakh) internal displacements in India in 2023 and around 2.5 million (25 lakh) in 2022.

Severe heat waves have impacted a large number of people in parts of India for three years in a row, affecting health, water availability, agriculture, power generation and other sectors of the economy.

Deadly floods left a trail of destruction in the Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand last year. A glacial lake outburst flood in Sikkim in October led to the collapse of a hydroelectric dam, killed more than 100 people, and affected more than 88,000.

While 86 per cent of the respondents favour India’s commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, 78 per cent say the government should be doing more to address global warming.