India's heat is underestimated, harming progress, study says

BENGALURU, India (AP) — The full extent of the damage from India's sizzling heat that's causing more deaths, illnesses, school shutdowns and crop failures is underestimated by lawmakers and officials in the country and slowing the nation's development, a study Wednesday said.

Extreme heat is placing 80% of India's 1.4 billion population in danger but assessments of how vulnerable the country is to climate change don't take into account how much the searing temperatures in recent decades are hampering goals like reducing poverty and improving health outcomes across India's population, researchers at Cambridge University in England found in a peer-reviewed study.

“It is high time that climate experts and policymakers reevaluate the metrics for assessing the country’s climate vulnerability,” said Ramit Debnath, the lead author of the study.

India has seen an uptick in sweltering temperatures caused by climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas, with an early heat wave in March and April last year breaking heat records in India and neighboring Pakistan. Scientists were able to attribute last year's exceptional heat to human-made climate change and warned of worse to come as global average temperatures continue to creep upwards.