Lessons from past tragedies

The climate upheavals of 2025 were a stark warning for India; it was the year when the frequency and severity of climate-related risk hazards were no longer aberrations but part of a new normal.

- By AMIT KAPOOR AND SHEEN ZUTSHI

Climate resilience is no longer optional but foundational for ensuring India’s ambitions are realised. As we move further into 2026, extreme vulnerability to hazard events will undoubtedly occur, but are our state-level systems resilient enough to absorb shocks, protect livelihoods, and recover without deepening inequities? The Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment 2025 (CRVA) report, prepared by the Institute for Competitiveness, provides a comprehensive picture of which states are exposed, most sensitive, and least prepared for such events.

The CRVA assessment also reveals a troubling pattern: climate vulnerability in India is systematically higher in states with lower GDP per capita. Bihar, in the assessment, emerges as the most climate-vulnerable state overall in the “very high” climate risk category, with a score of 55.27, illustrating how economic weakness and climate risk reinforce one another. States with limited fiscal capacity are in the least position to invest in resilient infrastructure, often, even though their exposure to climate risk reinforces one another. The result is a vicious cycle in which low incomes constrain adaptation, repeated climate shocks deepen economic losses and long-term growth is further suppressed, widening regional inequalities over time.