Mumbai rain alert remains in place as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasts continued heavy rainfall across the city and the Konkan region until July 7, warning that intense showers could trigger urban flooding, transport disruptions, landslides and rough sea conditions over the coming days.

The IMD’s Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Mumbai, said widespread rainfall with heavy to very heavy rainfall at several places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated locations is likely over Konkan and the adjoining ghat areas of Madhya Maharashtra between July 3 and July 7. The weather department attributed the active monsoon spell to the combined influence of an offshore trough extending from the Maharashtra to Karnataka coast, a low-pressure area over the northwest Bay of Bengal that is expected to intensify, and a shear zone across central India.

The warning comes after several days of relentless rain across Mumbai, which has inundated roads, slowed suburban train services, disrupted flights and left authorities scrambling to minimise the impact of the monsoon on one of India’s busiest metropolitan regions.

IMD issued a Red Alert for Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar and Raigad, indicating the likelihood of extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places. The alert also warned of strong winds, rough sea conditions and the possibility of flooding in low-lying areas, especially during periods of high tide. According to the weather department, the prevailing weather systems are expected to keep moisture supply active over western Maharashtra, sustaining intense rainfall over the region.

The heavy rainfall has already taken a toll on transport infrastructure. Waterlogging was reported from several parts of Mumbai, slowing road traffic and disrupting the city’s suburban railway network, the lifeline for millions of commuters. Flight operations at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport were also affected by poor visibility and adverse weather. On July 5, runway operations were briefly suspended before services resumed as conditions improved. Landslides and falling debris also affected rail connectivity on sections of the Mumbai–Pune corridor, highlighting the broader impact of the ongoing monsoon spell.

Mumbai Rain Alert: Flooding and Transport Disruptions Continue

Rainfall totals have underscored the intensity of this year’s monsoon. According to media reports citing weather data, some parts of Mumbai received over 300 mm of rainfall within 24 hours, while the city crossed 1,000 mm of cumulative rainfall during the first 12 days of the southwest monsoon, far above what is normally recorded during the period. Such intense rainfall has repeatedly overwhelmed the city’s drainage network, leading to waterlogging in several neighborhoods and traffic congestion across major roads.

As a precautionary measure, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) declared a holiday today, for schools, colleges and government offices. The University of Mumbai also postponed examinations scheduled for the day. Civic authorities urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel and remain indoors unless essential, while disaster response teams were deployed in vulnerable locations across the city.

The IMD has warned that the current weather conditions could result in flash floods, localized inundation in urban and low-lying areas, riverine flooding in some catchments, landslides in vulnerable hilly regions and damage to weak structures. It also cautioned that essential civic services, including water and electricity supply, may face temporary disruptions, while road, rail, air and ferry transport could continue to be affected if heavy rainfall persists.

The weather department has advised residents to avoid waterlogged roads, stay away from landslide-prone slopes and refrain from taking shelter under trees during thunderstorms because of the risk of lightning. Authorities managing dams, barrages and hydroelectric projects have also been asked to take precautionary measures in anticipation of heavy inflows.

Along the coast, the IMD has issued a warning for fishermen, advising them not to venture into the sea off the North Maharashtra and South Maharashtra–Goa coasts until July 7. Strong winds of up to 65 kmph are expected at sea. The IMD has advised ports along the Maharashtra coast to raise a caution signal. With multiple weather systems continuing to influence conditions over western India, authorities have urged residents to closely monitor official weather bulletins as the active monsoon spell is expected to continue through the week.

World Bank climate finance target has been abandoned following pressure from the United States, prompting warnings that vulnerable countries could face reduced funding for climate adaptation and resilience.

The World Bank has abandoned its flagship pledge to direct 45% of annual lending toward climate-related activities, a retreat from a commitment it made at COP28 and one that campaigners say will hit the world’s most vulnerable countries hardest.

The decision followed sustained pressure from the United States, the Bank’s largest shareholder, and came despite last-minute appeals from France — the institution’s fifth-largest shareholder — to keep the target in place. The Bank says it will continue reporting on the climate finance it provides, but it is no longer bound to hit the 45% threshold.

Why the World Bank Climate Finance Target Was Dropped

The World Bank has long been the single largest source of climate finance for developing countries. Multilateral development banks collectively delivered a record $137 billion in climate finance in 2024, with the World Bank contributing the biggest share. That funding underpins the Baku-to-Belém roadmap, which assigns development banks a central role in reaching the $1.3 trillion climate finance goal agreed at COP29.

Dropping the target now, critics argue, sends the wrong signal at the wrong moment. Eleonora Cogo, Climate Finance Lead at the ECCO think tank, put it bluntly:

“The World Bank says it is following its clients’ lead, but the data says otherwise: developing countries want solar, wind and hydropower. Scrapping climate targets at the very moment they are being surpassed, under pressure that runs directly counter to what recipient countries are asking for, is not neutrality. It is a choice that leaves the most vulnerable even more exposed to climate impacts and to the fossil fuel market instability that every new global energy crisis brings back into the spotlight.”

One Plan Survives, Another Falls

Amid the fallout, the Bank did extend its Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) — the framework aligning its operations with the Paris Agreement — just before its June 30 expiry. The plan had itself been under threat from Washington, and its survival came only after what one observer called a bruising fight among shareholders.

Jon Sward of the Bretton Woods Project described the outcome as a mixed result: “After a long and difficult negotiation among World Bank shareholders, the Bank’s Climate Change Action Plan has survived, but despite the efforts of other board members, US pressure has weakened the Bank’s climate work with the retirement of the 45% climate finance target.”

He added that the Bank still owes clarity on how a forthcoming independent review will shape the CCAP’s future — and how civil society groups, largely excluded from the negotiations, will be brought back in.

Joe Thwaites of the Natural Resources Defense Council struck a more defiant note, stressing that the Bank’s underlying obligations haven’t disappeared: “Let’s be clear: the World Bank still has a mandate to continue providing climate finance. The Climate Change Action Plan has been extended. Losing the overarching 45% climate finance target is bad, but individual World Bank Group entities still have their own climate targets, which can be a backstop against the bottom falling out.”

He called on shareholders to hold Bank leadership accountable and suggested donors redirect support to other institutions if World Bank climate finance begins to slide.

The Real Damage: Adaptation, Not Mitigation

Several analysts warned that the target’s disappearance won’t necessarily starve clean-energy projects — those are increasingly commercially viable on their own. The bigger casualty, they say, will be adaptation and resilience finance, which has always depended more heavily on concessional, subsidized capital.

Labanya Prakash Jena, Director of the Climate and Sustainability Initiative in India, explained:”There will be a limited impact on capital flows to bankable renewables/mitigation projects, since these are commercially attractive. The real risk is to climate adaptation and resilience financing — urban heat resilience, flood defences, climate-vulnerable agriculture — which relied on subsidised capital and development assistance, precisely because it’s harder to make commercially attractive.”

Jena noted that India, as the World Bank Group’s largest borrower, has diversified funding sources that will cushion the blow to mitigation projects — but adaptation finance will still take a disproportionate hit.

Suranjali Tandon, Associate Professor at NIPFP, connected the decision to a broader geopolitical shift: “Dropping the climate finance target reflects the shifting priorities globally. Not surprisingly, among the representatives that declined to endorse the continued work on climate change are large fossil fuel producers. Abandoning the target means the flow of finance, which so far used a broader co-benefits approach, may decline especially where the outcomes in climate change projects become less immediately discernible.”

A Push for Alternatives

For some, the episode is less a crisis than a call to action. Dhruba Purkayastha, Senior Advisor for Climate and Environment at Dalberg, framed the World Bank’s messaging with skepticism — while pointing toward a possible workaround: “While the removal of climate finance target is being positioned as shifting from ‘inputs to outcomes,’ it surely further erodes the concept of climate action as global public good, and weakens global sustainable development multilateralism. Therefore, there is need to step up on regional green development banks, funds, financial institutions such as maybe an Asia Green Finance Institution or a suprasovereign Asian Green Fund.”

What Happens Next

The World Bank’s decision arrives just months after the G11 group of developing nations formally urged the institution to extend its climate plan — a request partially honored, even as the numerical target that once anchored the Bank’s climate ambitions disappears. With the CCAP’s extension length still unannounced and an independent review pending, the coming months will determine whether individual entity-level targets and voluntary reporting can hold the line — or whether, as campaigners fear, climate finance quietly starts to shrink just as the world needs it most.

The FIFA World Cup knockout stage promises high-stakes football, but some of its biggest fixtures will also test endurance. With matches scheduled in Miami, Toronto and Philadelphia under intense heat, players and fans are preparing for conditions that could influence everything from match tempo and recovery to health and safety.

A new analysis by Climate Central warns that the ongoing heatwave affecting parts of North America has been made significantly more likely by climate change. Several knockout fixtures, including Argentina vs Cape Verde in Miami, Portugal vs Croatia in Toronto and Paraguay vs France in Philadelphia, are expected to be played in temperatures above 35°C. Scientists estimate these conditions are at least five times more likely because of climate change, with Miami facing a tenfold increase in likelihood.

The Tournament Has Already Felt the Heat

Extreme weather has already left its mark on the World Cup. During the group stage, at least two matches were played in conditions exceeding the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) threshold at which the global players’ union, FIFPRO, recommends delaying or postponing play. The France-Iraq fixture was also delayed by two hours because of storms, marking the first weather-related World Cup delay since 1974.

The report further found that 25 World Cup matches were played on days when climate change increased the likelihood of high wet-bulb temperatures, highlighting how extreme weather has become a recurring feature of the tournament.

FIFA World Cup: When Heat Changes Football

Football depends on constant movement. Modern teams rely on relentless pressing, rapid transitions and repeated bursts of sprinting over 90 minutes. But as temperatures rise, sustaining that intensity becomes increasingly difficult.

“The biggest mistake people make is focusing on the air temperature. That number is measured in the shade, whereas elite footballers compete under direct sunlight while generating large amounts of body heat through intense physical activity,” said Professor Ollie Jay, Professor of Heat and Health and Director of the Heat and Health Research Centre at the University of Sydney.

Players rely on the evaporation of sweat to stay cool during intense matches. In hot, humid conditions, that cooling process becomes less effective, placing them under far greater physiological strain than air temperature alone suggests, he explained.

Jay said much of the discussion around the tournament had centred on altitude in Mexico City, but warned that the combination of heat and humidity in venues such as Philadelphia could have an even greater impact on performance.

Sports scientists use Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), which combines heat, humidity, sunlight and wind, to assess heat stress during physical activity. Jay cautioned against relying on the Heat Index, saying it was never designed to assess elite athletes competing at maximum intensity in direct sunlight.

As matches wear on, the effects become increasingly visible. Players sprint less frequently, recover more slowly after losing possession and conserve energy instead of pressing aggressively. Coaches may respond by slowing the tempo, making earlier substitutions or adjusting tactics to manage fatigue. In knockout football, where a single mistake can decide a match, even small declines in physical or mental performance can influence the outcome.

Can Heat Create an Unfair Advantage?

The weather may also influence the tournament beyond individual matches.

Climate Central notes that knockout fixtures in Miami, Philadelphia, Toronto and New Jersey are being played in stadiums without air conditioning, exposing players to greater heat stress than those competing in climate-controlled venues in Houston, Dallas and Atlanta.

Teams advancing from hotter venues could carry more fatigue into later rounds than opponents playing under cooler conditions. While every team follows the same tournament schedule, the physical demands of each match vary depending on where it is played, raising questions about whether rising temperatures are creating an uneven playing field.

Fans Facing the Challenge

While cooling stations and revised water policies inside stadiums offer some relief, many supporters spend hours walking to venues, standing in security queues and gathering at fan zones under direct sunlight.

According to the report, more than 100 spectators required treatment for heat-related illnesses during the tournament in Houston, while fan festivals in Toronto, Houston and Atlanta were disrupted or cancelled because of extreme weather.

A Challenge Football Cannot Ignore

Extreme heat is forcing football to rethink how tournaments are staged.

While FIFPRO recommends postponing matches when the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature exceeds 28°C, FIFA’s competition protocols use a higher intervention threshold of 32°C. As a result, no matches have been rescheduled because of heat alone, although mandatory three-minute hydration breaks have been introduced midway through each half.

As tournaments are increasingly held under hotter conditions, football’s governing bodies may have to look beyond hydration breaks. Scheduling, kickoff times, stadium design and player welfare protocols are likely to become as important to the future of the game as tactics on the pitch.