Master Stroke: World Bank's report predicts, climate change may increase poverty in India by 2050

limate change could cost India 2.8 per cent of GDP, and depress living standards of nearly half of its population by 2050, as average annual temperatures are expected to rise by 1-2 per cent over three decades, says a World Bank report. 
If no measures are taken, average temperatures in India are predicted to increase by 1.5-3 degrees, said the World Bank report titled 'South Asia's Hotspots: The Impact of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Living Standards'.
"Rising temperatures and changing monsoon rainfall patterns from climate change could cost India 2.8 per cent of GDP and depress the living standards of nearly half the country's population by 2050," the report said.
Even if preventive measures are taken along the lines of those recommended by the Paris climate change agreement of 2015, India's average annual temperatures are expected to rise by 1-2 degrees celsius by 2050, the report said.
According to it, almost half of South Asia's population, including India, now lives in the "vulnerable areas" and will suffer from declining living standards that could be attributed to falling agricultural yields, lower labour productivity or related health impacts.
About 600 million people in India today live in locations that could either become moderate or severe hotspots of climate change by 2050 under a business-as-usual scenario.
States in the central, northern and north-western parts of India emerge as most vulnerable to changes in average temperature and precipitation.
By 2050, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are predicted to be the top two climate hotspot states and are likely to experience a decline of more than 9 per cent in their living standards, followed by Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the report said.

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