Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Mumbai

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Mumbai

Subject: Environment

Context: Mumbai is set to experience the highest increase in total annual rainfall among Indian metropolitan cities in the 21^st century, the recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned.

Concept:

• The city is likely to suffer from high mean temperature and sea-level rise towards the end of the century. Mumbai’s total rainfall rise is the highest in the country, followed by Delhi with about 50 per cent among metro cities.
• If recent 1995-2014 benchmark is considered, the total rainfall is likely to increase 45 per cent in Mumbai in 2081-2100 under the worst possible emission scenario. This indicates that nearly three-fourth of the total rise in 200 years leading to 2100 will occur only in the last 85 years.
• The analysis showed that under the worst possible emission scenario, Mumbai may have 4.6°C rise in mean temperature rise during end of current century compared to pre-industrial period

Reasons for Vulnerability of Mumbai

• The high warming rate in Arabian Sea caters to extremely high rainfall bouts in Mumbai region, Western Ghats as well as the entire central India.
• Urbanisation has led to the development of urban heat island effect in Mumbai that often plays a duet and catapult huge amount of rainfall,
• The urban heat island and related weather factors often lead to huge regional variability in rainfall pattern over Mumbai.