Last week, the South Indian city of Chennai witnessed its worst rainfall in over 100 years, flooding the city and claiming the lives of over 300 people – a stark and timely reminder of why the climate change talks happening at the COP21 in Paris right now are so important.

Soldiers and emergency workers are now rushing to deliver food, clean drinking water and medical supplies to flood-hit residents, and the city is now beginning a major clear up operation as water levels start to reduce.

#ChennaiRains: National disaster response force uses social media to reach out to people https://t.co/V3USMyjeHapic.twitter.com/D0553wZ7fK

— NDTV (@ndtv) December 4, 2015

The floods have impacted Chennai  particularly severely because, like many fast growing cities, the infrastructure is simply not prepared for such extreme weather conditions - once again it’s those in the most vulnerable situations (living in the most high risk areas) who are the worst affected in these situations.

The Chennai floods will certainly have served as a wakeup call for Indian Prime Minister Modi on the need for large scale action to reduce the adverse effects of climate change. We hope that this will encourage him and others attending the COP21 conference in Paris to commit to addressing climate change once and for all.

Now it’s time for you to TAKE ACTION. Sign the petition below to tell our leaders to switch to 100% renewable energy, so we can reduce extreme weather events like this happening across the world.