Opinion Author: Nimish Jha Comments
ASIA: India

India is gearing up for the COP 21 to be held next month. Recently, we submitted to the UN climate secretariat a detailed plan to cut carbon emissions. Around 150 countries representing about 90% of the world’s carbon emissions have now filed pledges to curb them and, in so doing, dramatically increasing the chances of a deal at the Paris climate summit in December (Guardian, October 2015)[1]. The role of cities has become very important in minimising these carbon emissions, largely due to their critical position as emitters, as well as their capacity to implement solutions for a cleaner environment. It makes cities important actors in the achievement of international agreements and implementing meaningful action on the ground. This has also created an opportunity for the growth of green economy, adoption of clean technologies, and building resilience.

Another factor contributing to the increasing importance of cities in dealing with climate change is the growing number of networks and associations that they have forged today. It indicates the efforts they have put into making themselves visible and heard in the international arena.  This implies that cities are not only important in shaping the climate change agenda in their own capacities through partnerships, local policy and networking with other cities, but also in undertaking measures regarding climate and making it central to the planning, infrastructure investments and economic development of the city.

It is therefore understandable that COP 21 has a very strong urban agenda. This is very reassuring for the advocates of the resilience of cities in the face of climate change. Energy  consumption in cities is inversely linked to the high amount of Green House Gases (GHG). This is making cities vulnerable to climate change and further putting at risk the infrastructure, population, housing stock, especially the vulnerable sections of the society. As a result, the economic and non economic losses are going to be much greater in the cities. Furthermore, owing to the current pattern of linear consumption and production in cities, and the top-down model of governance now needs to be reexamined. It makes it absolutely crucial to incorporate climate change aspect into building the resilience of cities.

In the mean time, while the agenda for the role of the city in the context of COP 21 is being redrawn, there are certain critical aspects that needs to be considered.  Firstly, the climate change and resilience building agenda has to take into consideration reorientation of a growth paradigm that takes local perspectives into account. Secondly, though some cities are initiating small voluntary steps to reduce emissions and build resilience, these ought to be  monitored and evaluated through transparent and consistent systems that provide accountability. These initiatives would be able to gain traction only through modes of dynamic governance and alliances with other city level institutions across jurisdictions. These are essential to realise the potential of city in governing and thereby building resilience of the cities. Thirdly, the indices to measure and evaluate minimisation of emission and consumption patterns are laid down and the cities are developing their capacities to respond to them. However, an issue that plagues the city today is that the universal nature of these targets overlooks the aspect of differences among the cities in achieving these targets. The urban responses for such minimisations should be conditional to recogonising the differences between the cities and within cities too (Bulkeley et al, 2015).[2] Furthermore, there is a strong need felt to ensure that aspects such as these are taken into account well before laying down targets.

The cities are not only setting out their appropriate spaces in their discussions on climate change, both as actors and as executors, but COP 21 should rightly define the path that facilitates it. This would bolster the cities’ efforts towards a more aggressive agenda of incorporating resilience into the development plans of each city and other related activities. It is extremely important that the city's capacity is fully realised by taking into account the challenges and resistance from the stakeholders.

 


[2] Bulkeley, H., Castan-Broto, V., and Edwards, G.( 2015), " An urban politics of climate change: experimentation and the governing

of socio-technical transitions", London: Routledge.

 


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