{"id":20007797,"date":"2014-03-31T16:54:51","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T16:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=7797"},"modified":"2020-12-01T21:41:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T16:11:19","slug":"climate-change-means-less-food-fewer-tourists-for-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/climate-change-means-less-food-fewer-tourists-for-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change means less food, fewer tourists for India"},"content":{"rendered":"

India may lose out on its tourism revenues if the global temperature keeps rising. \u201cIf the warming continues, tourists are going to shift to the higher, colder latitudes. Hotter countries including India are the most vulnerable,\u201d says Surender Kumar, a lead author of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a> (IPCC).<\/p>\n

Tourism, which is the largest single sector in the world economy, accounts for 9% of global expenditure with over 200 million people dependent on it for employment. Now with the world heating up, the industry is under threat. \u201cThe IPCC study analyzed and ranked 51 countries based on how the tourist flow will decline due to climate change and poor infrastructure. Based on that India turns out to be the worst hit country,\u201d Kumar \u2013 who teaches economics in Delhi University \u2013 said within hours of the release of the latest report.<\/p>\n

Another major challenge for Asian countries is decline in food production due to climate change. The report says that wheat production in the Indo-Gangetic plains can fall by 50% if heat stress increases. And sorghum yield may fall by 2-14% by 2020. In a country where farmer suicides are on a rise owing to low income and debts, this will push the small scale, marginal farmers even closer to the brink.<\/p>\n

The report, called Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability<\/a> is considered to be the most scientifically robust and comprehensive global report that details the current and future impacts of climate change and stresses on the adaptation techniques to counter them.  It has been compiled by 309 members of IPCC and reviewed by over 1,700 experts across 84 countries after taking into account over 12,000 scientific papers and 50,000 comments.<\/p>\n

Kumar, who has contributed to the chapter on economic impacts, said that only a few studies have been done in sectors like energy, water, transport, tourism, insurance and economic growth but they do show that climate change would cause significant economic losses.<\/p>\n

The studies show:<\/p>\n