Dear reader,
On a sultry July morning this summer, I spent some time with food delivery workers at a café in South Delhi. We discussed the hazards they face, such as a lack of drinking water and toilet facilities or the occasional climbing of stairs to deliver an order. The purpose of the meeting was different. I was keen to understand if wearing a ‘cooling vest’ made their lives any better during the punishing summer months.
This summer, over 7,000 cooling vests were distributed to people who work outdoors, literally with their feet-on-the-street, such as gig workers and construction labourers. The jackets have a layer of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), which can absorb water and slowly release it as vapour, cooling vital organs. This can protect a rider during the dreaded Loo season in northern India in the months of May and June. The efficiency of evaporative cooling (water coolers function on a similar principle) technology declines as humidity increases with the onset of the monsoon.
The cooling vest project was piloted by Intellecap, an impact advisory firm, to assess its effectiveness and gather feedback for improvement. The project's design and funding came from Trane Technologies and the Shell Foundation.
So, what did the delivery workers say? They wanted the cooling vest to cover their forearms as well, not just their torso. The vest kept their bodies cool, but they often had to use a wet towel to cover their head. The other problem was that their trousers would get wet from water dripping from the jacket. One said that the jacket should not just cool the torso but also look ‘cool’. The encouraging bit was that most of these young gig workers said they are willing to pay for a redesigned jacket which fixes these teething problems. The jacket currently costs ₹1,200 per piece because the PVA material is imported, but the developers hope to bring it down to ₹700 with local manufacturing.
It was heartening to see an early-stage technology being tested, made for those who work outdoors in searing temperatures. If a solution like this can prevent heat strokes, which at times lead to multi-organ failure and even death, the cost of a cooling vest is a small price to pay.
Later that day, I also met vegetable vendors testing a cooling shed retrofitted on top of pushcarts. The shed uses an imported white film with both reflective and radiative properties to cool the space underneath. The brighter the sun shines, cooler it turns under the shed. The result is substantially lower temperatures under the shed: about 6-8 degrees Celsius lower than ambient temperature, which improves the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. The hitch is that retrofitting the shade is an expensive affair, costing nearly ₹40,000 (the imported film alone costs ₹20,000 per canopy). Interestingly, a woman vendor said she is willing to pay up to ₹12,000 to have a shed like this—after taking into account the improvement in shelf life and lower wastage.
Climate solutions must be both effective and affordable for those who need them most- and endeavours like these offer hope that we may get there soon.
State of the climate
The Nepal flash floods, which have claimed more than 1,200 lives so far with nearly 5,000 still missing, are yet another reminder of how fragile the Himalayas are. On 26 August, a catastrophic flood swept through Nepal's Rasuwa district, triggered by a massive ice-rock avalanche that plunged down from an altitude of 5,200 meters. Within minutes, the collapse generated a 5.2-magnitude seismic signal and turned into a destructive debris flow.
This disaster came without an advance warning. It originated in a fragile region warming at a rapid pace, far exceeding the global average. Rising temperatures, coupled with increasing black carbon concentrations from biomass and fossil fuels, are accelerating glacier retreat and thawing high-altitude permafrost, which destabilizes mountain slopes, threatens water security for billions downstream, and triggers cascading hazards.
“This wasn't a distant disaster- the Hindu Kush Himalayan range stretches across India and neighbouring countries. It was also a disaster which was predicted by climate models many years ago. Nepal is paying the price for a crisis it didn't create,” said Aarti Khosla, director of Delhi-based Climate Trends.
“We did not build our prosperity by burning generations of coal and oil. We contributed almost nothing to creating the climate crisis at this scale. But we are being forced to survive its consequences. The people whose bodies are being pulled from rivers did not cause this crisis,” wrote a resident of the Nepal Himalayas in a post on X.
Following repeated disasters in the Himalayan region, the action points are well known by now but are yet to be implemented. The August event is the latest in a long line of Himalayan disasters and for sure, it won’t be the last.
The news in brief
- A raging dry spell in August has forced farmers to fire up irrigation pumps and homes to blast air-conditioners, driving power shortages far beyond last year’s levels.
- Consumers queue up for premium petrol as E20 concerns refuse to die down.
- Below-normal rains forecast for September raise crop and inflation risks.
- China is mulling a bid to host UN climate talks in 2028, seeking to burnish its reputation as a leader in the fight against global warming. In April, India withdrew its offer to host COP33 without giving a reason.
- Why Gurugram will flood again in the next heavy spell, sit inside a heat island next summer, and register as a pollution hotspot come winter.
- Even as a warming world melts the ice that holds mountains together, climate change policies are slowing, turning glaciers into ticking time bombs.
Know Your Jargon
E10
Consumer concerns about the negative impact of E20 fuel—that is, petrol blended with 20% ethanol —on the engines and mileage of older vehicles is forcing a rethink of India’s biofuel policy. Discussions are underway on whether to offer consumers a lower-blend petrol, E10, that will reduce the share of ethanol in petrol to 10%. The government is exploring whether E10 fuel can be offered through premium petrol variants such as Speed, XP95, and Power95. Since the infrastructure to dispense these slightly expensive fuels is already in place, offering an E10 variant will be relatively easier than setting up a separate system. E10 petrol will address the concerns of those owning older vehicles to a large extent. That’s because automakers have fully transitioned to E20-compliant vehicles since April 2023.
Chief economic adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran recently argued for bringing back a lower ethanol blend, such as E10, for the older vehicle fleet. “Fix the price and water distortions that unintentionally favour maize over other crops, relook at the import duty on edible oil to support the push towards domestic self-sufficiency, and hold at E20 until India has thoroughly costed the food-versus-fuel trade-off, rather than assuming it away. The engine row we witnessed was never the real argument. The real one is about what we choose to grow, and what we will not be able to take back,” he wrote.
Prime Number
65
Retail price of sugar touched ₹65 per kg in end-August. That is a 40% rise compared to last year. Among other farm commodities, onions are dearer by nearly 70%—the pungent bulb is now selling for nearly ₹50 per kg. Edible oils have also been on the rise, crossing the ₹200/litre mark for groundnut, sunflower, and mustard oils. While each commodity has its own dynamics, adverse weather is a common cause of these price hikes.
The sugarcane crop was damaged last year due to excess rains in Maharashtra, a leading grower, while India continued to divert the sweetener to make ethanol and even exported some quantities. Stored onions were damaged by unseasonal rains, high heat and humidity. Edible oil prices are on the rise, following global trends, as India is heavily dependent on imports. Higher crude oil prices following the war in Iran prompted major edible oil producers like Indonesia to divert palm oil to biofuels, further pushing prices higher. Then, the intensifying Russia-Ukraine war led to a spike in sunflower oil. The strengthening El Niño will likely worsen these supply shocks in the coming months, both in India and globally.
Movie of the Month
A new short documentary, Sound Guardians, follows a race against time in the forests of Borneo. As Indonesia carves out Nusantara—a ‘smart forest city’ in East Kalimantan—the film captures scientists and the indigenous Balik community working together to record the rainforest's soundscape before construction silences it. Bioacoustics researchers log calls of birds, frogs, insects, and mammals, building a record of biodiversity. The film shows how sound can help preserve biodiversity, culture and ancestral knowledge while documenting a people’s deep connection with the forest.
That's all, for now. Bibek will be back with the next issue in a fortnight.