Climate Smart Cities

Cities are best placed to adopt comprehensive climate responsive development to ensure the health and well-being of residents.

India accounts for nearly 6.5% of the global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) with almost half of the country’s emissions having urban origins - emanating from industries, transport modes, buildings, and waste.

This, coupled with rapid urbanization and the depletion and degradation of natural resources escalates the occurrence of more frequent and severe climate events. Indian cities are particularly vulnerable to water stress, prolonged hot (or cold) days, heat island effect, flash floods, urban water logging, droughts, and deteriorating air quality.

So, it is critical that cities chart pathways for an equitable transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy.

E-BUSES

APPROACH

WRI India Ross Center is helping advance the ClimateSmart Cities action plan through –

  • Research and knowledge management
  • National, State and City level handholding
  • Capacity building
  • Collaboration and outreach
  • Nurturing innovations
 

Assessment framework and indicators

To enable the 100 Smart Cities and AMRUT cities to assess their climate preparedness and develop a roadmap of climate actions, the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) was launched on 11th September 2020. The CSCAF 2.0 consists of toolkits and evaluation metrics based on 28 diverse indicators across five sectors -

  • Energy and Green Buildings:Cities can reduce their carbon footprint by adopting measures such as distributed energy generation, energy efficiency, electric mobility, climate responsive architecture and alternate fuel transportation systems.
  • Urban Planning, Green Cover and Biodiversity:Cities can improve and increase their greenspaces and natural systems and promote biodiversity; thereby becoming more resilient to climate-related shocks.
  • Mobility and Air Quality: Enhancing public transportation, creating sustainable transport infrastructure, monitoring industrial emissions, providing access to clean cooking fuel etc. reduce GHG emissions and mitigate cities’ impact on public health and the environment.
  • Water Management: Water scarcity, water quality and sanitation, along with climate change related issues such as droughts, heavy rainfalls, floods, landslides, coastal flooding etc. are critical issues faced by municipal and state governments.
  • Waste Management: Scientific management of waste along with a commitment towards a circular economy and adherence to Integrated Solid Waste Management (SWM) principles can reduce GHGs and associated pollution.

ONGOING WORK