{"id":139336,"date":"2021-10-05T20:58:52","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T15:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=139336"},"modified":"2021-10-12T16:36:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T11:06:05","slug":"cities-are-taking-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/cities-are-taking-climate-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Cities are taking climate action\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis<\/strong>: Efforts taken by states to deal with climate change, hurdles in transforming states in to a sustainable urban state and how we can find a solution to deal with the twin challenge of climate change and inclusive development. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Recently, Maharashtra\u2019s Environment Minister announced that 43 cities across the State will\u00a0join the\u00a0<\/span>UN-backed \u2018Race to Zero\u2019 global\u00a0campaign.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>This campaign aims to create jobs while\u00a0meeting goals of climate change and sustainable development.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maharashtra is the state that\u00a0experiences multiple risks\u00a0(floods, drought, sea-level rise). It has made\u00a0inadequate policy action on climate-resilient development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hence, this step is praiseworthy.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Are cities doing enough?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

After assessing climate action in 53 Indian cities with a population of over one million, it was found that approximately half of these cities report climate plans. Of these,18 cities have moved towards implementation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It signals that recurrent experiences of floods, water scarcity, cyclones and storm surges are being assimilated into urban development policy. In terms of intervention, we have focused on particular, isolated risks. For example, most cities report targeted projects to deal with heat waves and water scarcity, followed by inland flooding, extreme rainfall, and growing disease incidence. Coastal flooding, sea-level rise, and cyclones are discussed less often. It is despite the fact that India has long coastline and highly vulnerable coastal cities and infrastructure. Hence, we have failed to realize how multiple risks converge and reinforce each other. For example, seasonal cycles of flooding and water scarcity in Chennai. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are some steps taken by the states?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Front-runner cities in terms of climate change action plans are Ahmedabad, Tamil Nadu etc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahmedabad had a Heat Action Plan (HAP) which helped to reduce heat mortality. The HAP involves many stakeholders. Combining <\/span>infrastructural interventions (for example, painting roofs white) and\u00a0behavioral\u00a0aspects (building public awareness on managing heat)<\/span><\/b>, the model has now\u00a0been scaled up to 17 cities across the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nature-based solutions such as\u00a0<\/span>mangrove\u00a0restoration in coastal Tamil Nadu and urban\u00a0wetland management in Bengaluru<\/span><\/b>\u00a0have demonstrated how restoring ecosystem health\u00a0can sustain human systems as well. For example, urban parks provide cooling benefits\u00a0and wetlands regulate urban floods.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the hurdles in\u00a0developing sustainable Indian cities?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0inadequate finances and political will.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0inadequate institutional capacity in existing government departments to reorient ways of working.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Solving these would\u00a0help in\u00a0planning for multiple,\u00a0intersecting risks.\u00a0This would\u00a0transform\u00a0the ways our cities operate and expand. Undertaking long-term planning\u00a0needs resilience planners in every line department as well as communication channels across departments to enable vertical\u00a0and horizontal knowledge sharing.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are some recommendations to transform cities to make it sustainable?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We need to change\u00a0our\u00a0behavior\u00a0and life style. One\u00a0example of\u00a0behavioral\u00a0change is bottom-up sustainable\u00a0practices such as urban farming where citizens are interpreting sustainability at a local\u00a0and personal scale. This\u00a0would lead to many advantages.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0growing\u00a0one\u2019s own food on terraces and simultaneously enhancing local biodiversity<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0composting organic waste and reducing landfill pressure<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Three<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0sharing farm produce with a\u00a0neighbour, bringing communities closer and\u00a0creating awareness about food growing.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To deal with\u00a0the\u00a0twin challenges of climate change and inclusive development, pledges like Maharashtra\u2019s are a welcome addition\u00a0to ongoing climate plans.\u00a0This is high time when we need to focus on climate change\u00a0solutions and equip our city planners and citizens to implement them.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article “Cities are taking climate action<\/strong>” published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 5th October 2021<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis: Efforts taken by states to deal with climate change, hurdles in transforming states in to a sustainable urban state and how we can find a solution to deal with the twin challenge of climate change and inclusive development. \u00a0 Introduction\u00a0 Recently, Maharashtra\u2019s Environment Minister announced that 43 cities across the State will\u00a0join the\u00a0UN-backed \u2018Race… Continue reading Cities are taking climate action\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[408,216,10184,8685,4523],"class_list":["post-139336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-climate-change","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-race-to-zero-global-campaign","tag-sustainable-development","tag-urbanisation","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704814776},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}