This blog was coauthored by Dr. Ritika Kapoor and Charu Lata of NRDC India and Sameeha Hossain, a graduate student at the Yale School of Public Health.
Environmental health risks in India are widespread and climate change is worsening many of them. Stifling heat waves are becoming longer and more intense, rainfall patterns are becoming more erratic, and harmful ozone air pollution—already a threat to hundreds of thousands of people—is poised to worsen in a warmer world.
Against this backdrop, Indian leaders across government, academia, and civil society are implementing a range of actions to both increase the deployment of renewable energy and invest in adaptation (climate preparedness). On the adaptation front, major strides have been made over the past 15 years to better equip Indian society for extreme temperatures, notably through Heat Action Plans (HAPs). The HAP approach has thus far been scaled widely and enhanced to better address mounting heat risks. Other major government initiatives, such as the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), seek to reduce dangerous levels of outdoor air pollution, particularly in the most polluted settings.
Rural India faces intense climate hazards
Both HAPs and the NCAP—as well as a large number of climate change preparedness efforts worldwide—are focused on highly populated urban areas. While India continues to rapidly urbanize and could be home to seven “megacities” (populations exceeding 10 million each) by the end of this decade, a substantial portion of its population, about 60 percent, still resides in rural areas. These populations cope with many of the same climate-linked health threats as city dwellers but often have far fewer resources to prepare and adapt to climate change. For example, rural communities often face economic constraints, fewer educational opportunities, and weak infrastructures. Moreover, rural Indian households still rely on solid fuels like wood, crop waste, and animal dung to provide energy for cooking. These fuel sources burn inefficiently and contribute to dangerous levels of indoor air pollution.
Since 2019, NRDC has partnered with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) to implement the Hariyali Gram (Green Village) project, which seeks to expand rural access to climate-friendly technologies in the areas of lighting, cooling, irrigation, and cooking. This effort, jointly funded by NRDC and SEWA, aims to alleviate energy poverty and advance rural climate action through implementation of policy and market-based solutions. Specifically, Hariyali Gram supports household installation of energy efficient indoor lighting and fans, village biogas plants for clean cooking, solar-powered water pumps for irrigation, and cool roofs to reduce indoor heat risks. Many of the Hariyali Gram interventions deployed to reduce the emissions of climate-changing pollution can also improve other aspects of life in rural settings by reducing indoor pollution, moderating indoor temperatures, and promoting gender equity.
New evidence of health gains
A new commentary in the Journal of Change and Health offers early evidence of how these types of climate actions in rural India can help to improve people’s health and well-being. Our commentary documents the early findings of a March 2024 survey fielded by SEWA staff to evaluate the household-level effects of Hariyali Gram initiatives in one village, Nagano Math in the state of Gujarat (home to approximately 256 households) The full survey results, spanning economic, social, and health topics, will be released this spring. Among our health findings summarized in the published article:
- Health problems: Half of surveyed households overall reported family members with chronic health problems such as heart disease, asthma, and other lung diseases.
- Air pollution: Overall, 88 percent of respondents acknowledged indoor air-quality problems worsened by combustion of solid fuels.
- Cool roof benefits: Of 19 households that installed cool roofs as part of the program, 37 percent reported improved thermal comfort indoors.
- Biogas stove benefits: Nine households received biogas installations, and 78 percent noted improved indoor air quality, while 66 percent observed enhanced outdoor air quality. In houses with biogas, 56 percent respondents reported health benefits from adopting cleaner cooking for themselves or other members of the household.
These early insights are promising, and as we work to expand implementation of Hariyali Gram in other rural settings, we are also making strides to more systematically monitor and evaluate its impacts so that we can maximize health and equity impacts for these climate-vulnerable communities and better understand how specific sub-populations, like women and children, are being served by Hariyali Gram interventions.
Scaling up rural climate action can benefit health
Climate change impacts in India are already widespread and human vulnerability is vast; the early evidence presented in our commentary shows that even stronger ambition and sustained action can help to strengthen climate resilience of people living in rural India and improve their health in the process.
