"Round-table Meeting on “Climate Change and Urban Development"

 

Organized by: 

- National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA)

- The Rockefeller Foundation

Date: 5 August 2011

Venue: NIUA, New Delhi
Home

Summary of Discussions

A Round-Table Meeting on “Climate Change and Urban Development” was held on Friday, 5 August, 2011 in the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). The Meeting was organized by NIUA in collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation. The objective of the Meeting was to deliberate upon the process of urban planning, services and infrastructure development being undertaken in India through various national and state-level flagship programmes and policies and the need to make it resilient and sustainable in view of the likely impacts of climate variability and change.

The deliberations were presided over by Ms. Nisha Singh, IAS Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India and it attracted participants from key national level agencies and organizations working on urban planning and development issues. Ms. Heather Grady, Vice-President, The Rockefeller Foundation delivered the Keynote Address. The detailed list of participants is given below.

Initiating the Meeting, Prof. Chetan Vaidya, Director, NIUA referred to the emphasis being accorded by the Government of India to urban development and highlighted the need to ensure that urban policy, programmes and planning and development process promote sustainability of urban environment. Prof. Vaidya mentioned the efforts being made under the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) in some cities in India and a range of similar initiatives to promote urban CC resilience. These initiatives were acting as a catalyst drawing important learning which is being disseminated across 65 JNNURM cities by NIUA through its PEARL network. A Consultation Committee (ConComm) for Promoting Resilient Urban Development has also been constituted under NIUA to promote convergence of activities in this direction. Two activities being taken up include (i) orientation and training programmes for key city functionaries in four regions of the country and (ii) knowledge and training needs assessment especially in the context of integrating CC concerns in urban planning, services and development.

Mr. Ashvin Dayal, Managing Director, Asia, The Rockefeller Foundation said that it was essential to assess the skills, capacities and the alignment required at city level to promote urban CC resilience. Since CC resilience is a new practice area, sharing of global learning on how to strengthen resilience planning in the cities will be useful.

Ms. Heather Grady, Vice-President, The Rockefeller Foundation explained the rationale and the need for focusing attention on urban climate change resilience (UCCR) and highlighted the concept of ‘resilience’ in the context of urban development paradigm. The concept of ‘resilience’ has different connotations for practitioners from different areas and disciplines. At the same time, we need to understand the importance of ‘resilience’ for the poor especially in an urban setting. ACCCRN initiative is working in cities which are witnessing or are likely to witness faster urban growth and offer a high potential for integrating CC adaptation. In the Indian context, the national development agenda of the Government of India is quite ambitious and there is a felt need to align it with the larger canvass of poverty reduction and urban development. The Government of India has also recognized the significant impacts the processes of climate change and variability are likely to have and it is encouraging to learn that various programmes have been initiated in Mission-mode to address these imperatives.

Ms. Nisha Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development said that climate change has become a reality today and the changes in the climate are quite visible. These are likely to have far-ranging impacts on various aspects of socio-economic life and are likely to be quite pronounced in the urban context. This calls for adopting a more sustainable model of development which is able to take care of the aspirations of today as well as tomorrow and also ensure sustainability of environment. The urban development is per se understood to entail infrastructure development project only whereas the opportunity could also be utilized to develop more environment-friendly urban spaces while ensuring that urban services and infrastructure are able to cater to the needs of the urban people more effectively. Ms. Singh referred to the National Mission for Sustainable Habitat (NMSH) and felt that the experience and learning from various CC resilience building initiatives can be factored into NMSH initiatives as well as into the City Development Plans (CDPs).

Ms. Jyoti Parikh, Chairperson, IRADe mentioned that the vulnerabilities especially in the urban context are increasing due to poverty, lack of opportunities and haphazard urban development. The increasing vulnerabilities are also increasing the climate-induced risks in urban areas. This underscores the need for an in-depth assessment of cities’ vulnerabilities to various natural hazards and the steps which can be taken to enable the communities and city administrations to address them.

Mr. G.K. Bhat, Director, TARU Leading Edge made a brief presentation on the key experiences and lessons emerging from Phases-I and II under ACCCRN initiative in India. Some of the experiences emerging include (i) expanding the planning horizon to understand poverty-urbanization-CC linkage and the city growth trajectory vis-a-vis climate-induced risks, (ii) empowering city stakeholder groups and (iii) exploring options for addressing the three-headed hydra by performance improvement of service delivery mechanisms and using technologies for managing services, resources and risks. The urban planning process needs to be informed by assessment of vulnerabilities of people, urban networks, economy and resources base and addressing them at city and regional level.

In the context of the existing and emerging needs related to urban development and the fact that processes associated with climate variability and change make it imperative to promote urban resilience, the participants highlighted and deliberated upon some of the key issues and challenges. These are summarized in brief as under:

  • Significant work is being done to promote urban CC resilience, the need is to integrate into the policy process.
  • For promoting city resilience, it might also be useful to focus on regional planning approach.
  • Many of the cities have well-developed building by-laws, zoning regulations, land-use planning etc. but it is the implementation, enforcement and compliance with these which needs to be addressed for promoting urban resilience.
  • There is a need for ensuring better balance while planning city spaces.
  • While talking about urban resilience, there is a need for integrated thinking and coordination across a range of agencies and stakeholders.
  • Recognizing that the current capacity of cities to manage even the existing urban services and infrastructure is limited, the need for institutional strengthening was strongly felt and advocated.
  • There is a general lack of effective implementation of policies and programmes. While the policy formulation process is quite comprehensive by itself, the implementation of these policies and programmes needs to be improved by (i) informed data and knowledge, (ii) greater capacity at municipal level and (iii) practical action and demonstration activities.
  • The municipalities are operating in status quo maintenance mode. This mindset among municipalities and their functionaries needs to change so that they can start thinking about emerging needs and challenges and plan for them.
  • Need for dovetailing and synergizing various programmes and initiatives was highlighted.
  • Government should formulate a long-term strategic plan for development of urban spaces. It can even be a 100-year plan to be implemented with shorter time horizons under City Development Plans (CDPs) and the Master Plans. This will help orienting the short-term plans towards the long-term strategic thinking and ensure more effective achievements.
  • Peri-urban areas are as much vulnerable to impacts of climate change as the core urban areas. These areas need not be looked upon as city dumps but need to harnessed effectively.
  • The city governance structures need to strengthened to ensure a more resilient and sustainable urban development.
  • Climate change and variability requires a multi-level framework. This needs to incorporate not only the development needs but also address the urban risks. Risk resilience also needs to be made an integral part of urban climate change resilience (UCCR).
  • Development agenda needs to be harmonized with city resilience building process and one need not follow the other.