Report: Indian cities’ heat plans not local-specific

CHENNAI: Most of the heat action plans devised by districts and cities in the country do not integrate climate projections and are not local-specific, said a report released by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR).

These heat action plans (HAP) are built for local context and have an oversimplified view of the hazard, the report said. “HAPs generally focus on dry extreme heat. Only 10 out of 37 HAPs (in 18 states) reviewed seem to establish locally-defined temperature thresholds though it is unclear whether they take local risk multipliers (such as humidity, hot nights, duration of continuous heat among others) into account to declare a heatwave,” it pointed out.

Among the 37 HAPs that the centre reviewed was the plan from Vellore district. While analysing the parameters, CPR has found out that the HAP of Vellore does not have defined financial mechanisms to carry out the mitigation measures. Also, it does not consider localised temperature threshold, hot nights, indoor heat and vulnerability assessment. It also lacks short-term nature-based solutions and long-term infrastructure solutions.

The report said that nearly all 37 HAPs were poor at identifying and targeting vulnerable groups. “Only 2 of 37 HAPs carry out and present vulnerability assessments. This leaves the implementer with little data on where to direct their scarce resources and could lead to poor targeting,” it added.

Government estimates indicate the loss of 25,983 lives between 1990 and 2020 due to heatwaves despite widely acknowledged limitations in gathering mortality data. The International Labour Organisation estimates that working hours lost due to heat stress will increase to 5.8 per cent of working hours by 2030, or an equivalent of 34 million jobs, the report added.

The report recommended making HAPs anticipatory tools for heat planning rather than reactive tools by using high resolution and downscaled climate projections.