Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Areas of India
Climate change – rising temperatures and an increasing number of extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and cyclones – poses a severe challenge in India, especially for the rural poor who depend on natural resources for their livelihood. The impact will vary in its extent and form around the country.
To cope with the risks, interventions will have to be specially tailored to suit the different states and regions. More scientific evidence of the projected regional impacts of climate change need to be collected. This has to be combined with best practices from different sectors, and linked to coping strategies, local knowledge, and innovative ideas.
The four states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were chosen as the locations for the project Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Areas, as they encompass India's differing agricultural-climatic zones. In a first step, the project aims to explore climate change vulnerability and to assess the consequential risks specifically at the state level.
At the second step, these analyses provide the scientific base for developing and testing adaptation measures in pilot regions. Once tested, the adaptation measures can be fine-tuned and implemented in other regions with similar agro-climatic conditions. Over and above that, the project supports the introduction of a climate proofing tool, which will allow policy planners to assess whether the objectives of government projects might be threatened by climate change, and how the planned measures can be adapted accordingly.
Apart from this, the project assesses a number of existing simple financial instruments, including insurance and credit schemes, that might be suitable to promote adaptation to climate change, especially for the rural poor.
