Climate change may reduce farm incomes by 15% in India, finds study

 It finds that on a high-emissions pathway, climate impacts spiral to cause devastating damage across the G20.

Climate impacts would tear through G20 countries without urgent action to reduce emissions, and in India, it could mean declines in rice and wheat production, causing economic losses of up to 81 billion euros and a loss of 15 per cent of farmers' incomes by 2050, a new report revealed on Thursday

The first study of its kind, the G20 Climate Impacts Atlas by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), the leading Italian research centre on climate change and National Focal Point for the IPCC, collates scientific projections of how climate impacts will play out in the world's richest countries over the coming years.

It finds that on a high-emissions pathway, climate impacts spiral to cause devastating damage across the G20.

The research shows that rising temperatures and intense heatwaves could cause severe droughts; threatening essential water supplies for agriculture, causing huge loss of human life and increasing the chance of deadly fires.

In specific countries, this could mean heatwaves could last at least 10 times longer in all G20 countries, with heatwaves in Argentina, Brazil and Indonesia lasting over 60 times longer by 2050.

In Australia, bushfires, coastal floods and hurricanes could raise insurance costs and reduce property values by A$611 billion by 2050.

The report finds that without urgent action to reduce carbon emissions, GDP losses due to climate damage in G20 countries increase each year, rising to at least four per cent annually by 2050.