Global warming is making India prone to extreme weather events

Bloomberg

India is likely to witness more extreme weather events, including intense heat waves, heavy flooding and severe drought that pose challenges to food and energy security for the second-most populous nation.
“The extremes are increasing — hot is becoming hotter and cold is becoming colder,” said M Ravichandran, the top bureaucrat at the country’s earth sciences ministry. This trend is only going to intensify every year, driven by a warming planet, he said in an interview on the sidelines of a G20 working group meeting on climate and environment in Bengaluru.
Erratic weather conditions expose millions of Indians to climate disasters, kill thousands every year and increase economic hardships by eroding farm productivity. At the same time, it burdens the country’s energy supplies by pushing demand for fossil fuels and drying up sources of hydropower.
The country must plan to deal with such events and invest in climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, Ravichandran said. The government is examining alternative sources of energy, such as offshore wind power and tidal energy, he said.
The nation faced a grueling summer last year, with temperatures touching record levels in several parts of the country. Deadly heat waves strained energy supplies and hit wheat crops, forcing India to ban exports of the grain at a time when the world faced a shortage following Russia’s war in Ukraine.
As the demand for electricity to run cooling appliances shot up, India had to import expensive coal to keep the lights on. The government has asked power plants to again import the fuel during the approaching summer to prepare for a likely surge in demand.