UN observes today (Oct 3) as World Habitat Day with a view to appeal the world about its collective responsibility for the future of Human Habitat. Cities & Cllimate Change is the Theme for this year
The world population is getting ready to pass the 7 billion mark by the end of this October and already 50 percent of the people are living in cities. India's urban population too will double in the next 30 years
India's cities are also characterised by high density of population, housing stock and poor infrastructure that makes them all the more vulnerable to climate change. For instance, studies have estimated that the economic damage - this includes only building foundation damages till 2050 due to sea-level rise - to Mumbai, as a result of climate change, could amount to 15,01,725 crore.
And much of the risk associated with climate change in cities is concentrated among low-income households, as described by Aromar Revi for India. The cities most at risk are those that are likely to be most affected by the impacts because of their physical form: poor-quality buildings and lack of water supply and storm drainage infrastructure.
According to the Clinton Foundation, large cities are responsible for about 75% of the greenhouse gases (GHG) released in our atmosphere. Evidence also shows that the impact of carbon emissions on cities is through energy consumption and transport.
Energy consumed in heating and lighting of residential and commercial buildings generates a quarter of GHGs globally. Transport contributes 13.5%, of which, 10% is attributed to road transport.
In this context, it is useful to study how Indian cities have contributed to climate change through carbon emissions. The International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), South Asia, associated itself with 54 local governments in the South Asian region, including 41 cities in India, to collect city energy consumption and related carbon emissions inventory data of the participating cities.
Based on a cursory examination of the per-capita carbon emissions across metropolitan and non-metropolitan cities, it was found that the average per-capita carbon emissions are higher in the metropolitan cities of India - being 1.19 tonnes per capita as compared to only 0.90 tonnes per capita in the non-metropolitan cities - as we would expect, and the national average is 0.93 tonnes per capita. This is because larger cities have more industries and other polluting activities such as emissions from public and private transport.
Internationally, Palo Alto, California, US, leads the pack with emissions amounting to nearly 12 tonnes per capita, followed by Toronto, Canada (at 9.6 tonnes per capita). Only seven of the 41 Indian cities studied by ICLEI have per-capita emissions greater than Sao Paulo's 1.5 tonnes per capita. However, some caveats should be noted. The data does not include major cities such as Delhi , Mumbai which might be significantly contributing C02 Emisions
In India, at the sub-national level, various pollution control boards and several city corporations have taken the lead in reducing carbon emissions. Some cities such as Gorakhpur, Surat and Indore have taken up pilot projects for adaptation and mitigation of the impact of climate change in their cities.
Indore - which has been affected by climate change in the form of rising temperatures and increasing incidence of non-monsoon drought - has identified potential pilot activities such as underground water storage and a volunteer-based water supply-availability tracking system.
Various carbon emission-reducing processes are gaining carbon credits in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). Technologies involved in cutting electricity consumption in street lights, use of LED lighting source, the BRTS mass transit system, green technologies and e-governance are part of this process. AMC has agreements with several companies with a profit-sharing arrangement for carbon credit trade.
So, it appears that while urbanisation and climate change are inextricably related, some attempts are being made by Indian cities to cope with carbon emissions. The World Habitat Day is an appropriate occasion to look at the efforts being made in India with regard to this and improve awareness of the effects of climate changes on the urban populace.
Courtesy article written by KALA SEETHARAM SRIDHAR on Economic times
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