Cement, Energy and Environment

) ) ) A number of developed countries have also made contributions, including Germany, Denmark, Norway, Australia, Finland, and the Netherlands. "I think it's a really laudable gesture, demonstrating that some developing countries are really committed to making the GCF work," said Smita Nakhooda, a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, who is attending the talks in Bali. "It's been a difficult set of talks, but this inserts some much needed positivity I think." It is not clear yet whether this money will go towards setting up the Fund itself, or go directly towards funding climate change projects. A spokesperson at the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) said the government would wait until the latest round of talks conclude before deciding on their own contribution. "We will make an assessment of the value for money of the GCF relative to alternatives and its potential to achieve its objectives once the main design elements have been agreed," they said. Courtesy: Akshay Urja, Volume 7. Issue 5. April 2014 Pg. No. 8 CLIMATE PROOFING INDIAN CITIES A POLICY PERSPECTIVE While urban centres in india are the new engines of growth, they are often the victims of climate– induced calamities leading to heavy loss of life and property. The need for indian cities to become climate resilient is therefore a basic necessity that needs to be fulfilled at the earliest. read on to find out more. Climate change is one of the foremost emerging global challenges, the impacts of which are increasingly manifesting themselves through highly erratic instances of weather deviations and induced extreme events. While both urban and rural areas are vulnerable to cl imate change, its impacts on cities and towns are of particular concern due to high concentrations of people and infrastructure in these areas. Cities may be subjected to multiple climate hazards dependin·g upon their geographical location and climatic conditions, ranging from increased and frequent flooding and water logging to heat and cold waves, sea-level rise, and storm surges. Across India, cities face climate-induced calamities regularly, often accompanied with heavy loss of life and property. Monsoon plights in the recent past in large urban centres such as Delhi and Mumbai are examples of climate– induced problems for which inadequate provisions have been made in the urban planning of the cities. I • What are climate-resil ient c ities? . Climate-resilient cities have the institutional, structural, social, and economic capacity to withstand the impacts of climate change. Climate change adaptation measures help a city to successfully withstand extreme climate variations, while greenhouse gas em1ss1on mitigation measures help reduce climate impacts. Climate– resilient cities therefore include mitigation and adaptation actions to take care of the likely climate impacts, besides increasing the capacities of the populace, infrastructure, institutions, and governance. Response mechanisms for such cities also focus on preparing for extreme climate events such as storm surges, landslides, and floods. The Risk Of Doing Nothing In India, the immediate urban development priorities are to provide housing, water and sewage facilities, transport, health, and social infrastructure in order to manage the growing demands of the cities, high pace of urbanization. and population explosion. They generally do not take in to account the impact of climate change as it is still considered as a distant threat. However, not taking into account the impacts of climate change at the urban planning stage itself, can lead to huge economic losses, negative health impacts, associated with high social cost burden, particularly among the vulnerable groups such as the poor, disabled, elderly, and children . It is thus important to consider climate resilience as an important urban agenda as it is a starting point towards addressing climate-related impacts and preparing cities for unforeseen climate-related extreme events and variability. How are other countries addressing urban cl imate resil ience? Realizing that climate change is a reality and the urgency to address climate-related extreme events, city governments across the globe are taking policy actions to prepare their cities to face the brunt of climate change impacts. Table 1 summarizes a few of them. 33