MUMBAI, India – Air pollution and heat are much worse together for human health than each of them alone, said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist at the World Health Organization, speaking at this week’s Mumbai Climate Week (MCW).

Heat and air pollution were among the key regional priorities during the three-day event that brought global climate conversations to a climate-vulnerable region.

“There is work done in California which shows that on the days when you have the highest heat and high air pollution, the deaths which occur on those days are three times more than when you have either heat or high air pollution,” Swaminathan said at a session on extreme heat and outdoor labour.

In South East Asia, climate change is leading to more extreme heatwaves, and the region’s very high levels of air pollution exacerbate related health impacts, worsening cardiovascular and respiratory symptoms, and increasing premature mortality. Swaminathan stressed, however, the need for more research on the synergies.

Bringing climate conversation to the global south

Mumbai’s Climate Week, which ended on Thursday, was the first of its kind to be staged in South East Asia. Modelled after more well-established events in New York City and London, it was organised by the local non-profit Project Mumbai, in collaboration with several dozen Indian and international partners. Those included well-known philanthropies such as the Clinton Global Initiative, as well as other finance, industry, UN agencies. The Climate Group, which organises the New York climate week was also a partner.

The goal was to bring climate dialogue that often happens in the developed world to the global south, and provide a platform to diverse voices across India and other developing countries, said Shishir Joshi, CEO and founder of Project Mumbai speaking to Health Policy Watch ahead of the event.

The organizers selected Mumbai due to its position as India’s financial capital, its range of urban challenges, and its active civil society. The densely populated urban metropolis of over 18 million people is struggling with extreme heat, rainfall, flooding as well as worsening air quality.

The event received the support of the Indian government and the regional Maharashtra government. The latter launched its ‘Be Cool’ initiative to scale up cooling solutions across the state’s cities, supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The week revealed “the strength of a collaborative, philanthropic effort for change,” Joshi said, but added that the week was also a platform for, “citizen-led action … While deep dive conversations on the three thematic areas are the primary focus of the climate week, our effort is also to ensure that citizens feel they do have a voice and a voice which can be heard.”

Attention given to heat’s impact on workers

Roughly half of India’s workforce, or an estimated 231.5 million workers are outdoor workers, according to one recent analysis. They labour in agricultural fields, at construction sites, in markets, and as delivery workers in urban areas.

These workers are increasingly on the front lines of rising heat and air pollution, among other climate extremes.

Yet related health impacts may go unnoticed for a long time. “A lot of them experience chronic exhaustion, kidney stress, and declining productivity before there is a medical emergency. That means the true burden of heat still remains quite invisible,” said Dr Radhika Khosla, an associate professor at the University of Oxford, who also appeared on the panel on outdoor workers.

Nearly 62% of India’s female workers are employed in agriculture and are thus by extension, primarily outdoor workers.

Of those women not engaged in agriculture, about 40% are home-based workers, mostly engaged in artisanal food production and sewing or textile work. And they are also at risk, said Renana Jhabvala, President of SEWA Bharat, a national federation of informal women workers.

“Their homes’ roofs are usually aluminum sheets, and the temperatures are almost 8-10° C higher than what it is outside,” she said, adding that the related impacts on health and productivity are also often invisible.

Experts said what is needed is to scale up cheap and locally available solutions like cooling paints, low-cost roofs that don’t overheat, increasing green cover and shade across cities, along with access to public water dispensers and toilets.

Global North players made their presence felt

An occupational health insurance initiative being piloted by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) demonstrates another approach. The insurance scheme provides compensation for lost work days due to heat. So far, some 500,000 have been enrolled in India, said former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who discussed the initiative during a fireside chat at the MCW.

“We are very focused on climate, health and women, and that combination is important, because women are on the front lines of climate change,” Clinton said. “Women, especially in the Global South, and obviously here in India, are very often working outdoors and now in extreme heat. India will be the model for the rest of the global south because of this CGI commitment.”

Finance remains an issue

Yet, typically it is women workers, and women climate advocates, who find it harder to access finance for available climate solutions, Clinton observed.

Unlocking finance more broadly was another key theme at the sessions, taking place in India’s financial capital with major international banks such as HSBC, British International Investment, IDFC First, and others partnering both in the event and its panels.

What is really needed is more “blended finance” – e.g. combination of public and private investments in climate projects – because neither the public nor the private sector can meet all of the looming needs on its own, said Clarisa De Franco, of Allied Climate Partners, a philanthropy that mobilizes investments for climate projects in the Global South.

But the panelists also expressed optimism for India’s prospects of mobilizing more climate investment as the region is regarded as an attractive option for international investment overall.

Image Credits: Unsplash/Previn Samuel, By arrangement, Mario Spencer/Unsplash, HABVIA , By Arrangement.