Rising Temperatures

Drivers, Implications, and the Way Forward

- Arvind Kumar, Former Senior Economic Adviser, Government of India.

In this article, Arvind Kumar examines the rising temperatures driven by accelerated climate change, noting that recent years are the hottest on record and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense.

He explains the role of high-pressure systems, urban heat island effects, and emissions from cooling in amplifying heat stress in cities. The article outlines impacts on agriculture, energy demand, health, and ecosystems, while advocating nature-based and technological solutions, improved urban planning, and early warning systems to build heat resilience and mitigate risks. Stressing urgency and coordinated measures.

Since the 1950s, cities across the globe have experienced large changes in the weather patterns. Global warming is one of the key symptoms of climate change. Record-breaking heatwaves with temperatures around 45 degrees Celsius have become quite common across many regions of India, with both mean and extreme temperatures rising sharply across seasons, contributing to year-round thermal stress.

Global Warming Driven by Climate Change

Science-based evidence has confirmed that recent years have been the hottest on record and the effects of climate change are intensifying—including rapid glacial melt, ocean acidification, wildfires and more frequent and intense extreme weather events. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), hot extremes, which used to occur only once in every 50 years during the period (1850-1900), now occur every 10 years. The year 2024 was the Earth's warmest since at least 1850. It was the first year in which temperatures exceeded a 1.5 °C increase relative to the pre-industrial era average. However, the long-term average temperature rise still remains below 1.5 °C (WMO).