‘Change now to avoid future cost’

MUMBAI: The weather gods are notorious for being fickle, but there may be more to the unexpected heat that Mumbai is reeling under than just freak weather.

According to one of the authors of the Stern Review, a report on the economics of climate change published by the British government recently, the city may well have to get used to such unusual weather spells as part of the fallout of global warming.

“Mumbai can expect more storms and floods of the kind it saw a few years ago,” said Dimitri Zenghelis, economist and lead author on the report.

“In addition, the rise in sea levels being caused by global warming is a definite issue that will have to be dealt with.” Being a coastal city, Mumbai is susceptible to losing low lying areas which may have to be abandoned.

Speaking at an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with the British High Commission, Zenghelis repeated the message that is being increasingly sent out from the scientific community: climate change is a real risk that requires an urgent global response.

Moreover, the impacts of these changes will be felt first and most keenly by the poorest countries.

“When you have a situation where the infrastructure is already stressed and where even basic demands like clean drinking water are hard to meet, things are  going to get harder and harder as the integrated impact of climate change kicks in,” added Justin Mundy, senior adviser on climate change to the UK foreign office. 

Mumbai can prevent higher future costs since it is a growing city and can plan ahead, said Zenghelis. “If you get locked into a bad development path now and do nothing, it will cost more to fix it later. But by making different choices now, the coping with environmental stress can be gradual.”