AAD 2025: Next generation will grow up in a world which will be far hotter, says State of India’s Environment

The first generation of the 21st century is enduring a much warmer planet noted the State of India’s Environment 2025 released by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down To Earth (DTE) Magazine on February 26, 2025.

“For the first generation of the 21st century — Generation Alpha — it is an inheritance of profound loss. For their predecessors, climate change has been an unfolding planetary emergency. But Generation Alpha — which will comprise an estimated two billion people by 2025, making it the largest generation in history — is enduring a climatologically changed, warmer planet,” the report’s authors wrote.

The report quoted the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which says that 2024 was the first calendar year with a global average temperature “clearly exceeding” 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level.

The year 2024, in fact, was the warmest year on record, with the average global temperature at 1.60°C above the pre-industrial era (1850-1900) average.

“2024 will be remembered as the year that divided the pre- and post-climate change eras,” said Kiran Pandey, programme director, environmental resources at CSE.

She added: “Given the fact that atmospheric moisture levels rise by 7 per cent for every one degree rise in global average temperatures, this is a perfect brew for planetary disruptions in terms of extreme weather events.”

CSE’s assessment indicates that India saw more frequent and intense extreme weather events in 2024, compared to the previous two years. In the first nine months of 2024, India witnessed extreme weather events on 255 of the 274 days as against 235 days for the same period in 2023 and 241 days in 2022. The events drastically impacted agriculture, with 3.2 million hectares of cropland affected in 2024 — 74 per cent more than in 2022.

The State of India’s Environment 2025 was released by Sunita Narain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment, along with India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant; former deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia; and management and financial guru Raj Liberhan.

The Annual State of India’s Environment 2025 report is available here on sale.

“There is good and bad news as we move ahead in 2025. The good news is there is increased environmental consciousness. The 2025 Delhi assembly elections told us that clean air, clean Yamuna, and garbage on the streets were issues that voters were concerned about. Governments are introducing programmes for environment; farmers care about their soil and water; industry needs resource security without any conflicts. On the ‘bad news’ front, we are saddled with programmes that are not ambitious enough; institutions that are weak; and a way of environmental management that is expensive and non-inclusive,” said Narain.

The Anil Agarwal Dialogue 2025 is an annual conclave of journalists from India who write on environment and development issues. Over 80 journalists from across the country are participating in this one-of-its-kind platform, organised every year by CSE at its facility, the Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute, located in Nimli, Rajasthan.