Odisha Among 11 Indian States Likely To Suffer Impact Of Extreme Climatic Conditions: UN Report

New Delhi: Odisha is among the 11 Indian states that will get most severely affected by rising emissions due to extreme climatic conditions, as per the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (IPCC) report.

The others states are Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab. If emissions continue to increase, all Indian states may have regions that experience temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius or more, according to the report by the UN body.

The UN report warned that at the current emission cuts promised, many parts of northern and coastal India could reach extremely dangerous wet-bulb temperatures of over 31 degrees Celsius towards the end of the century.

Extreme climatic conditions are threatening food security in South Asia, as per the latest IPCC  report. The report by the UN body claims that escalated threats of floods and droughts will make India and Pakistan among the most vulnerable to climate change.

The second installment of the IPCC Working Group II’s report titled ‘Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’ talked about the climate-related risks to agriculture and food systems in Asia. The report stated that the risks will progressively intensify with the changing climate, and will have differentiated impacts across the region.

The major projected impacts of climate change in the agriculture and food sector, as per the report, include a decline in fisheries, aquaculture, and crop production, particularly in South and Southeast Asia.

The IPCC report predicted that the rice production in India can decrease from 10-30 per cent, while the maize production can see a reduction of 25-70 per cent. This is based on the assumption that a range of temperature increase from 1 degree to 4 degrees Celsius will take place.

The report stated that the international food supplies are also under threat and the risks of widespread crop failure would increase if emissions are not rapidly cut, News18 reported.