Leaders | Living with heat, drought and floods

Smarter incentives would help India adapt to climate change

It is the biggest test case for how hot, hard-up countries can cope

People wade through a flooded street during heavy rain in Chennai, India
Photograph: AP
|4 min read

Few places illustrate the challenges of adapting to climate change as clearly as the world’s most populous country. India was hot even before people started to cook the planet, not to mention vulnerable to floods and droughts. Now all these ills are getting worse. Minimum temperatures last summer were the highest since 1901, giving heat-sapped Indians little respite even at night. During the monsoon in 2024, floods destroyed villages and brought towns to a standstill. In the dry season several big cities nearly ran out of water, including Bangalore, the thriving technology capital.

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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “How India can adapt faster”

From the January 4th 2025 edition

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