A new report, 'Under the Weather: India's Climate-Health Intersections and Pathways to Resilience,' published by ClimateRISE Alliance, revealed that India has lost an estimated 160 billion labour hours to heat exposure in 2021. It equates to almost 5.4 per cent of India's GDP.
The report also found that heatwaves were linked to an 11.7 per cent rise in cardiovascular-related death risk. The finding comes as a vital concern in India, as heart disease accounts for around 28 per cent to 30 per cent of deaths.
The report highlighted that the rising heat is also turning into a serious maternal health concern. Over the last five years, pregnant women in India experienced an average of six additional days of dangerously high temperatures each year.
"Notably, heatwaves are linked with a 16 per cent increase in the odds of preterm birth, alongside associations with stillbirths and newborn hospitalisation," the report noted.
It also highlighted that climate impacts interact with inequities existing in society and disproportionately affect people who are already vulnerable, including women, children, informal workers, rural communities, and people with weaker access to healthcare.
"Climate stress acts as a multiplier, deepening existing burdens rather than creating entirely separate ones," the report added.
"There is a requirement to view climate action, public health preparedness and resilience-building as one element," the report added.
The report also proposed an integrated action that can generate co-benefits across systems, improving health outcomes while also strengthening productivity, preparedness, and community resilience.
Significantly, the WHO had earlier highlighted that climate change is directly contributing to humanitarian emergencies from heatwaves, wildfires, floods, tropical storms and hurricanes.
It had also added that they are rising manifold in scale, frequency and intensity. WHO also pointed out that the areas with weak health infrastructure, present in developing countries, will find it extremely difficult to cope without assistance to prepare and respond.
"To avert adverse health impacts and prevent millions of climate change-related deaths, the world must limit temperature rise to 1.5°C," the WHO had noted.
With a few inputs from PTI