43 of World's 100 Cities at Greatest Environmental Risk are in India: Report

Asian cities are at a greater risk from Environmental concerns like natural disasters and air pollution, as per a report by research firm Verisk Maplecroft. 

Out of 100 most vulnerable cities, 99 are in Asia itself, according to the report of Verisk Maplecroft. Of those, 43 are in India and 37 are in China, the world’s third and first biggest emitters of greenhouse gases respectively.  

Around the world, approximately 1.5 billion people live in 414 cities that are at high risk from pollution, extreme heat, water shortages, natural hazards and the physical impacts of climate change, Bloomberg reported. 

Global Scenario:  

• Capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, topped the list of combined risk based on all 9 factors assessed by Verisk Maplecroft. India is home to 13 out of the 20 riskiest cities within the world, a result of its extreme levels of water, air and other pollution.  

• Flood- prone provinces such as Guangzhou and Dongguan in China topped the list of cities facing threats from natural hazards, followed by Japan’s Osaka and Tokyo for being vulnerable to earthquakes and typhoons. Lima is that the only city outside Asia among the topmost 100 most at-risk cities overall. 

• African cities also facing some of the worst risks from global warming and climate change and have the least ability to reduce those impacts. Glasgow was ranked the safest among the 576 cities examined for that factor. 

Indian Scenario:  

In case of India, Delhi is the world's 2^nd highest risk city, followed by Chennai at 3^rd, Agra at 6^th and Kanpur at 10^th. Jaipur is at 22^nd on the list, with Lucknow, Bengaluru and Mumbai at 24^th, 25^th and 27^th, respectively, with the second- highest urban population at the greatest risk. 

“Environmental risk needs to be a central consideration when it comes to making your business, investments or real estate portfolio more resilient,” said Nichols. The hope is that identifying these risks and stressing strategies for future climate scenarios will help investors can “gain a clearer view of the costs and benefits of investment decisions.”- Bloomberg