G20 India Presidency Celebrations: JMI holds lecture on climate change, disaster risk reduction

NEW DELHI: The department of Geography of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University organised an extension lecture titled 'Climate change and disaster risk reduction: Making sustainability a way of life' today on March 29, 2023. The lecture was organised from 10 am until 11:30 am on the university premises.

The lecture was a part of India's G-20 presidency celebrations and was delivered by SD Attri, member of Commission for air quality management in NCR and the adjoining areas. Head of geography department, Haroon Sajjad, welcomed the guests and thanked the JMI vice-chancellor, Najma Akhtar for organising academic sessions to celebrate India's G-20 presidency.

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Attri, in his address, appreciated the leadership of JMI vice-chancellor Akhtar for inspiring and sharing India's G-20 presidency with the academicians and researchers across India and beyond. Post this, he highlighted the diverse issues and challenges driving climate change. He underlined that weather, climate or water-related disasters have claimed the lives of 115 people and have caused damages worth $202 million on a daily basis respectively.

"The number of disasters increased five-fold over the past 50 years, largely driven by human induced climate change, more extreme weather events and improved reporting. From 1970 until 2019, 3500 disasters were reported, which led to nearly 10,00,000 deaths and economic loss of $1.2 trillion.

Further in the lecture, he said that India is among the top ten most climate-induced disaster prone areas in the world, with 65 percent of its population to be affected by heat waves, 60 million people of the country to be affected by floods and 316 million Indians to be present in India's 225 most vulnerable districts by 2030. He emphasised on building climate resilience to survive, adapt and thrive despite recurring disasters.

Sandesh Yadav from the department bid the vote of thanks at the end of the lecture.