City Climate Action Plans and dealing with the TRIPLE CHALLENGE;
“Urbanization, Fractured Urban Governance, and Climate Change”
According to a recent survey among C40 member cities, 92% of its 98 member cities have experienced severe flooding as a result of climate change. In India alone cities like Chennai (in 2015), Delhi, Mumbai (annually) and Bangalore (most recently) have faced city-wide flooding as a result of unexpected climate change-infused weather patterns resulting in unusually heavy rains and consequently inundating and overwhelming an already fractured city infrastructure.
While floods can cause their share of damage to cities, extreme heat emanating from paved surfaces in cities is at the other end of the spectrum. Cities in the sub-tropical regions of the world (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator) are experiencing devastating Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) and with temperatures 3-8 Deg warmer than rural areas. The UHI coupled with higher ambient temperature driven by climate change increases the air conditioning load on buildings and which inturn increases air pollution causing significant health impacts for urban residents and reducing the quality of life.
