Climate Risk and India’s Infrastructure

This working paper would assess how climate change threatens India’s infrastructure systems. While TERI’s research on stubble burning focuses on air quality impacts, similar methodologies can be applied to evaluate how rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and extreme weather events affect roads, railways, power grids and urban drainage. The paper would begin by reviewing literature on climate‑induced infrastructure disruptions worldwide, highlighting damage from floods, heatwaves and storms. Using geographic information system (GIS) data, the study would map infrastructure assets against climate hazard zones, identifying hotspots of vulnerability. For each infrastructure category, it would estimate potential damages under different climate scenarios, employing probabilistic models to simulate disruptions and their economic costs.

The working paper would then explore adaptation strategies, such as elevating road surfaces in flood‑prone areas, retrofitting bridges to withstand higher temperatures and investing in decentralized energy systems to enhance resilience. Financing mechanisms like sovereign green bonds and public–private partnerships would be discussed. The paper would also highlight policy tools, including climate‑responsive infrastructure standards and mandatory risk assessments for public projects. To ensure that adaptation strategies are socially equitable, the study would consider the distributional impacts of infrastructure failures—how poor and marginalised communities are disproportionately affected—and propose safety nets. Because the findings would be preliminary, the paper would invite feedback from engineers, climate scientists and policymakers to refine models and recommendations.