India and Pakistan hit by the effects of climate change
India and Pakistan have been hit by a record-breaking heatwave, with temperatures over 50°C in certain regions. This has caused water shortages, drought, reduced production, devastating fires, power cuts, school closures, saturated medical services, etc. People living in poorer neighbourhoods and in the street have been the worst affected.
These hotter and longer heatwaves are likely to become the norm unless significant measures are taken urgently to limit global warming to sustainable levels, as was pointed out in the IPCC’s recent report.
Humanitarian actors who work in the field are well positioned to observe the intensification of climate change and the growing complexity of meteorological events. Lessons learned from past experience will help to mitigate certain disasters caused by extreme weather, some of which continue to follow familiar patterns. But new approaches – and new lessons – will be necessary to deal with disasters that are inevitably going to be more complex, but about which we currently know and understand very little.
The Lessons Paper, ‘Adapting humanitarian action to the effects of climate change’, written in 2021 by ALNAP and Groupe URD, in partnership with AIDMI and ADAPT, includes a series of recommendations related to anticipating, preparing for, and responding and adapting to extreme heatwaves (part C – ‘Lessons from new weather events: heatwaves’).
The main points are listed below, and the recommendations can be read in full on pages 48-56 of the report
The following lessons relate to the adaptation, anticipation and response to new disasters (part C // Lessons from new weather events: heatwaves).
The nature of heatwaves
LESSON 30: Humanitarian actors and their partners should formulate programmatic responses to the challenges presented by extreme heat and heatwaves.
Resilience and adaptation
LESSON 31: Humanitarian and other actors should focus support to communities and socioeconomic groups that are particularly exposed to the harmful effects of heatwaves as the threat of them increases.
LESSON 32: Humanitarian actors should support efforts to secure reliable access to sustainable energy, which is needed for effective strategies for adapting to increasing heatwaves.
LESSON 33: Humanitarian actors should develop their understanding of the complex impact of extreme heat on livelihoods.
LESSON 34: Partnership between humanitarian actors and government can support social protection to vulnerable groups in the event of extremely high temperatures or heatwaves.
Preparedness and response
LESSON 35: Humanitarian actors should support and play their part in multisectoral approaches across shelter, urban planning, WASH and public health to help communities improve their capacity to withstand and respond to the effects of heatwaves.
LESSON 36: Governments, researchers and humanitarian actors should share the financial burden of mitigation activities.
LESSON 37: Humanitarian actors should contribute to awareness-building among groups who do not understand the dangers of extremely high temperatures or heatwaves.
Anticipation
LESSON 38: Advocate for greater investment into early warning against heatwaves.
LESSON 39: Humanitarian and other donors should invest more time and resources in better risk assessment and improved monitoring and evaluation of heatwave preparedness and adaptation programmes and activities.
LESSON 40: Humanitarian and other actors should design their interventions in ways that engage affected communities in heatwave mitigation plans and programmes.