The latest India update from Yale Program on Climate Change Communication reveals major gaps in climate literacy in the country.
The ‘India Climate Opinion Maps’, the update, an interactive tool, looks at the climate change experience, beliefs, policy and risk perceptions across 34 of India’s 36 states and Union territories and 634 districts. “This update incorporates new nationally representative survey data through 2026, collected by our partners at CVoter,” says a statement from the programme, which started at the Yale School of Environment, Yale University, the US.
Indians are generally not well-informed about global warming, finds the update. Less than half of Indians in the majority of central, western and eastern states said they knew a lot or something about global warming. Provided with a short description of global warming, however, a majority of Indians, nationally, and across most states said that global warming was happening. In Andhra Pradesh, 80% said so and in Delhi, 92%. In West Bengal, 96% felt so.
India is the seventh most climate-vulnerable country in the world and the third highest greenhouse gas emitter, the report reminds. Hence India’s experience of climate change is vitally important.
Large gap in climate understanding
The report points at a large gap in the understanding the reasons behind climate change.
“Many Indians, particularly those in central and eastern India, do not understand that global warming is human-caused — e.g., fewer than 50% of people in Bihar (45%), Madhya Pradesh (47%), Odisha (48%), and West Bengal (49%) think that global warming is caused by human activities,” says the report.
This is interesting when read against the concern that has been caused by climate change.
Indians across the country are “overwhelmingly worried about global warming. More than three-quarters of Indians in every state and district say they are worried about global warming, although worry is slightly higher in northern India vs. southern India,” says the report.
Climate concern highest in north India
Understandably, threat perception is greater in the north, which experiences extreme heat most. In the north, 86% of people in Haryana and 85% in both Delhi and Punjab think global warming will harm them and their family, as against 63% and 66% in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the south. The percentage of people who think global warming will harm their community is even higher in the northern states compared to in the south. In Haryana 86%, in Delhi 87% and in Punjab 88% feel this, in contrast to 63% in Karnataka, 66% in Andhra Pradesh and 67% in Telangana.
In Kerala on the Indian southwestern coast, which has experienced severe flooding in recent years, 91% of the people think global climate change will adversely affect their community.
Fifteen percent in Sundarbans have no clue about global warming
In Bengal’s Darjeeling district, located in the vulnerable Himalaya mountains, this perception was at 81%, and in both North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas, the location of Sundarban, one of the most vulnerable places in the world affected by climate change, this perception was at 85%.
“Despite the disparities in personal risk perception across different states, 85% of people nationally, and no fewer than 74% in any state or district, think that global warming will harm people in India overall,” says the report.
North South divide on climate experience
Personal experience of climate change also shows the north-south divide. “Only 59% of people in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana say they have personally experienced the effects of global warming, compared with 94% and 95%, respectively, in the northern states of Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh,” says the update. This divide also marks the personal experience of severe heat waves. Large percentages of people in Haryana (80%), Rajasthan (79%), and Odisha (79%) say “they have personally experienced severe heat waves in the last 12 months, compared with only 52% in Kerala and 55% in Tamil Nadu”.