Urban India and Climate Change

Abstract

India will undergo immense urbanization in the coming decades, doubling its urban population by 2050. This transformation is unique as it will come at the time when the impacts of, as well as the global momentum to respond to, climate change heighten. India’s urban transformation will, therefore, have deep implications for not only local welfare and environmental conditions but also for climate mitigation and climate adaptation. As most of urban India is yet to be built, India has a unique opportunity to lock-in low-carbon, resilient, and equitable urban forms for the long term. This chapter discusses the evolution of India’s urban climate actions, from addressing climate risks to, more recently, mitigation, while also exploring the governance characteristics of these actions. These actions, while nascent, provide an indication that the future trajectory of urban responses to climate change will be shaped by how local development and climate goals will be linked and prioritized.

Climate Change and the Politics of Apocalyptic Redirection

“…On one hand, climate change threatens many of India’s poorest people with grave harms, most notably that of becoming refugees from drought and flood-affected areas (Arthur, 2019; Mukhopadhyay and Revi, 2009). On the other hand, it is generally acknowledged that fighting poverty requires modes of economic development which involve substantial amounts of greenhouse gas emissions (Khosla and Bhardwaj, 2019; Sreenivas and Gambhir, 2019). Sreenivas and Gambhir (2019: 427–428) note that ‘while developmental concerns and climate concerns do not always come into conflict, often there are difficult choices to be made between the two’.…”