NAPCC
NATIONAL MISSION FOR A GREEN INDIA
NATIONAL MISSION FOR A GREEN INDIA
Climate change: An urban perspective
A comprehensive review of dozens of studies by leading urban planning researchers suggests that urban development is both a key contributor to climate change, and also an essential factor in combating it …….Dr Divya Sharma
Half the globe is urban today, and threequarters of carbon dioxide-the biggest greenhouse gas (GHG) in the world, is emitted by urban areas (Darryl D Monte-2007). Cities account for 1/6th of freshwater the world guzzles, a quarter of the wood harvested, and 2/5th of the material and energy flows. According to the IPCC (2007), cities are responsible for 26 percent of direct GHG emissions. A comprehensive review of studies by leading urban planning researchers suggests that urban development is both a key contributor to climate change, and an essential factor in combating it. The global rise in temperature, more frequent extreme events, rise in sea level and glacier melting, all impacts of climate change, threaten citiesthe economic basis of many a developing countries.
Climate change not only feeds extreme events and disasters, but also induces gradual changes like fluctuations in temperature and precipitation levels. We need to adapt city level operations to both current climate variability and future climate change.
There are essentially two types of responses to combat climate change. One, mitigation that involves reducing emissions of GHGs to arrest climate change, and two, adaptation, which involves learning to cope with, and build resilience to temperature increases, floods, and higher sea levels triggered by climate change. Both mitigation and adaptation are complementary to each other and particularly relevant to future urban strategies.
Climate change risk to India’s urban centers can be seen in the perspective of the expected transition in city growth. An addition of almost 500 million people in an estimated 7000 to 12000 urban settlements is expected by 2060. This will involve environmental transition related to water, sanitation and environmental health; air and water pollution; and climate change. Urban challenges for India in the 21st century are dual. One calls for priority interventions like providing housing and basic services to all, the infrastructure to support an ever-growing population, and addressing poverty. The other is the challenge of coping with air and noise pollution, environmental degradation, and climate change-induced extreme events and disasters.
Our cities require integrated intervention that involves urban development and growth coupled with environmental safety and sustainability. Any framework needs to first identify the city level vulnerability and risks, and redirect investments and programmes in the city planning process. This calls for reducing a city’s social structural vulnerability. It involves redirecting investments towards climate sensitive planning and linking the different levels of institutional interventions. This means equipping our cities in two ways-building resilience, coping mechanisms against disasters and extreme events, and planning city development in an environment-friendly manner that’s sustainable in the long run.
The strategies could include promoting low-rise, high-density mixed land use development to reduce demand for travel and land and integrating sustainability norms in the master/ development plans of cities and towns. Besides, increasing and restoring the green cover in and around cities, use of building material and surfaces that reduce urban heat island effect, and improving storm water drainage system, could also help. Strategies could also involve interventions at the regional level like proper resource management, improving weather forecasting to prepare for extreme events, having a disaster management plan in place for environmentally sensitive/ drought and flood-prone areas, and the preservation of threatened areas.
This could be achieved through specific mitigation and adaptation plans that are built into city development planning and ascertaining institutional backup to enable operationalising these plans. But, a huge knowledge gap exists in terms of possible climate change impacts at regional and local (city) levels and the nature of responses to be designed to take care of location specific impacts. So, we need to look at the R&D needs specific to design urban responses against climate change for Indian cities. The National Mission on Sustainable Habitat under the NAPCC articulates the level of financial investment required to take up some of the measures suggested in the mission plan. Since each city would have a unique set of problems and issues, the understanding and design for city-specific intervention is important.