Opinion
India can’t address the health risks of climate change without robust data
Summary
- Our healthcare challenges have steepened as global warming starts taking a toll. India must build robust health-data infrastructure, strengthen inter-ministerial data sharing and enhance cooperation among various agencies.
India is witnessing an early heatwave this year, with west-coast temperatures soaring. This is being attributed to a rain-deficient winter season, among other reasons. Climate change is no longer just an environmental concern—it is impacting public health in significant ways. Rising temperatures and air pollution are contributing to the spread of vector-borne diseases, heat-related illnesses and respiratory conditions. The World Health Organization estimates that between 2030 and 2050, climate change will cause an additional 250,000 deaths annually on account of malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.
Healthcare systems in India are already grappling with increasing costs of care and insufficient state funding. As the climate crisis intensifies, they will face mounting challenges, including an increased burden of climate-sensitive diseases, heightened demand for emergency and preventive care, and a need for resilient healthcare infrastructure. Addressing the health risks posed by climate change will require stronger systems to capture climate-health data.
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Strengthening climate resilience in the health system requires mechanisms to track climate-related changes using multi-sectoral data. However, administrative data-sets on climate and health are fragmented across agencies and government levels, with frequently incompatible standards and formats a problem. For instance, temperature data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is not easy to integrate with health data from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) or state-level health departments. These silos make it difficult to identify critical linkages.
Beyond integration challenges, we also lack localized data on the effects of climate change on health outcomes. India’s diverse topography results in varying levels of vulnerability across states. Coastal regions face heightened risks of waterborne diseases due to flooding, while northern and central states endure more severe heatwaves. Without granular data, states cannot develop early warning systems or targeted intervention strategies, leaving communities exposed to climate-driven health risks.
Vulnerable populations will bear a disproportionate burden of climate-related health harm. Construction workers are vulnerable to extreme heat. Pregnant women are at higher risk of pre-term births during heatwaves. But much of the information on these groups comes from media reports. The absence of official data prevents the development of strategies to ensure that the vulnerable are not left behind in our climate resilience efforts.
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At CoP-29, health was discussed for the first time alongside climate change, an acknowledgment that climate risks are also public health risks. Yet, while global initiatives are advancing the climate-health agenda, India lacks the data infrastructure and institutional collaboration necessary to address these challenges.
First, India needs to build the requisite infrastructure to strengthen data. While the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW), through the NCDC, has launched the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health, the policy does not focus on strengthening data infrastructure.
The aforementioned national programme should take two key steps.
First, it must ensure that all states, especially the most vulnerable, develop high-quality climate and health data-sets. It should also establish a national climate-health data repository that consolidates state-level data, integrating meteorological trends with disease surveillance. This will improve risk assessment as well as early warning systems and lead to better targeted adaptation efforts.
Second, inter-ministerial data sharing must be strengthened while ensuring citizen privacy and data security, given the sensitivity of health information.
The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission acknowledges that health data (such as epidemiological disease patterns) is critical for informed decision-making. The National Data Governance Framework Policy enables the use of anonymized and non-personal data for research, offering a boost to data-driven decision-making. Building on this, India needs a secure and interoperable climate-health data framework, enabling ministries and departments to share data while maintaining strong privacy safeguards.
Also Read: India must institute a robust framework for climate governance
India needs to enhance coordination across ministries, the private sector and civil society. For this, an inter-ministerial task force should be established, bringing together key agencies such as the IMD, ministry of earth sciences, MoHFW, Indian Council of Medical Research, NCDC and the ministry of environment, forest and climate change. Strengthening Centre-state collaboration is also critical. Further, engaging the private sector and civil society will facilitate technical expertise, funding and community-driven solutions. This can be facilitated through structured public-private partnerships, multi-stakeholder forums and data-sharing agreements that drive innovation.
A data-driven approach to public health is becoming increasingly important. By focusing on improving climate-health data infrastructure, India can safeguard public health against climate risks. This will also allow India to play a bigger role in developing the global climate-health agenda.
The authors are, respectively, program manager at Artha Global and principal, Center for Technology & Innovation at Artha Global.
