Smaller cities can lead the way on climate resilience, Pg11

Key Highlights:

• More than half of India's urban population lives in cities with fewer than one million residents.
• Estimates indicate that more than 50% of the housing needed by 2070 is yet to be built.
• The authors invoke the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change framework of climate-resilient development, which combines adaptation, emissions reduction and sustainable development.
• India's Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy and the National Mission on Sustainable Habitat provide the policy framework for such integration.
• The India Cooling Action Plan estimates building design, energy efficiency and thermal comfort practices could cut cooling demand by 20% by 2037-38.
• Recent steps include the Urban Flood Risk Management Programme covering 18 cities and the recognition of heat as a notified disaster.

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Detailed Insights:

• A study across 88 Indian cities found that land use, building density, urban expansion and green cover shape cooling demand, not temperatures alone.
• The authors argue smaller cities can avoid costly retrofitting by shaping expansion now, before roads, drainage and buildings lock in vulnerability.
• They recommend making climate part of routine planning, project appraisal and investment, with stronger coordination between departments.
• They suggest using existing municipal revenues, government transfers and scheme grants, complemented by CSR funding, impact investment and development finance.
• Spatial data, vulnerability assessments and scenario modelling work best when combined with local knowledge and lived experience, they say.
• Recognition of heat as a notified disaster enables the use of disaster funds for heat resilience.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Climate-resilient development: The IPCC framework combining adaptation, emissions reduction and sustainable development.
• National Mission on Sustainable Habitat: One of the eight missions under India's National Action Plan on Climate Change, focused on sustainable urbanisation.
• Notified disaster: A hazard officially recognised under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, unlocking disaster-response funds.
• India Cooling Action Plan: The 2019 roadmap to cut cooling demand, refrigerant use and cooling-related energy needs over two decades.