Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Monday said the global pace of climate mitigation was not enough to contain the rate of climate change, PTI reported. Speaking at COP27, the annual UN climate event, Yadav said since climate finance was still scarce, climate adaptation in the form of early warning systems would be key in safeguarding lives and livelihoods from natural hazards.
Speaking at the UN Secretary General high-level round table to launch the "Early Warnings for All Executive Action Plan", Yadav said, "There is an urgent need to acknowledge the cascading natural hazards that cause substantial losses around the world."
The Environment minister further said that due to the increasing instances of tropical cyclones in the Pacific and the Caribbean, small tropical states lost 200 per cent of their national income in a few hours. "Such instances could have devastating consequences in countries that do not have sufficient means to cope with them," PTI quoted Yadav as saying.
"'Early Warnings For All' plays a part in not just containing the immediate physical impacts, but also mitigating the far-reaching, long-term socio-economic implications that follow," he further said.
The minister said India had been working on strengthening end-to-end early warning dissemination systems for all hydro-meteorological hazards.
Yadav also said India had made concerted efforts towards making early warnings impact-based, easily understandable and actionable by communities over the last few years, PTI reported.
"Deaths due to cyclones in the country have reduced by up to 90 per cent in the last 15 years. India is making swift progress in terms of early warning for other hazards such as heat waves," he said.
The COP27 conference is being held in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt from November 6 to 18. At the summit, developed countries are expected to push developing nations to further intensify their climate plans.
Developing countries, on the other hand, will seek commitment from the developed nations to finance and technology that are needed to address climate change and the resulting disasters.