This study intends to assess India’s present approaches to disaster and climate risk management, adaptation and resilience building, to record best practices and analyse how these approaches can be scaled up globally as well as domestically by driving more investments.

The past few years have demonstrated a remarkable level of volatility. Efforts to establish a “new normal” after the COVID-19 pandemic were interrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and a wave of food and energy crisis.

The costs of disasters and the negative impacts of climate change are rising globally. Record numbers of extreme weather events, exacerbated by climate change, are already costing the world billions of dollars each year. Other threats, including pandemics, geophysical hazards and cyber risks, are adding to this bill.

This issue of the Southasiadisasters.net titled “Building Adaptation and Resilience to Heat Waves,” presents the timely need for the mainstream implementation of adaptation strategies against extreme heat, especially in the sprawling urban cities of South Asia.

This publication explores how climate change adaptation can be integrated into decentralized governance processes to address root causes of vulnerability in Asia and the Pacific.