India receives $255 million to help cope with climate change

India will receive $255 million (£170 million) to help deal with global disasters such as cyclones caused by climate change.

Yesterday (June 22nd), the World Bank's International Development Association announced it will give India the finances to improve the country's early warning and communication systems in the event of a cyclone.

The money will be used for India's National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Programme to improve response to disasters, access to emergency shelters and protection against cyclone-related hazards.

NVV Raghava, senior infrastructure specialist and project team leader from the World Bank, said: "As climate change and variability become more pronounced, hazard events are set to grow, both in terms of frequency and intensity."

Every year, 370 million people in India are exposed to cyclones along its 100 kilometres of coastline.

In a recent report from RealClimate.org, Dr Urs Neu from ProClim - Forum for Climate and Global Change Swiss Academy of Sciences, stated that cyclones could be a direct result of climate change after seeing a correlation between the frequencies of previous tropical storms and atmospheric changes.

Posted by Lauren Steadman