In India, heat insurance offers climate change lifeline to poor women workers - South China Morning Post
In India, heat insurance offers climate change lifeline to poor women workers | South China Morning Post
Women take shelter from the sun at a construction site in Ahmedabad, India. Photo: Reuters
In India, heat insurance offers climate change lifeline to poor women workers
- Some 21,000 self-employed women in Gujarat state are enrolled in one of the world’s first insurance schemes for extreme heat
- This form of disaster assistance is on the rise across the developing world, as vulnerable communities are hammered by worsening drought, storms and heatwaves
Women take shelter from the sun at a construction site in Ahmedabad, India. Photo: Reuters
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”