Urbanization in the time of climate change: Examining the response of Indian cities

Abstract

India's urban transition is salient to the growing emphasis on city responses to climate change. While projected to experience the largest global urban transition with significant infrastructure investment in the next few decades, the welfare of Indian cities remains poor, which complicates the implications for climate change mitigation and adaptation. This paper traces, synthesizes and characterizes the emerging literature on Indian urban climate debates. It discusses the arc of urban climate efforts, from an initial emphasis on climate vulnerabilities and risks, broadening over time to include climate mitigation. The paper examines the governance forms and political motivations with which such actions are pursued in cities and finds three overarching characteristics: the use of local development priorities as an entry point to climate mitigation and adaptation; the role of nonstate actors in promoting climate-relevant outcomes; and the proclivity for discrete project-based activities. The paper suggests that while a range of Indian cities are beginning to consider climate concerns, a larger strategic understanding of the interaction between climate and development priorities, across policy and governance levels, is yet to be developed. The future trajectory of urban India's responses to climate change will be shaped by the institutional prioritising, linking and integrating of urgent local development and mitigation and adaptation goals.This article is categorized under:

Message Sent, Now What? A Critical Analysis of the Heat Action Plan in Ahmedabad, India

“…This, however, has proven to be a difficult task to accomplish. The fragmented planning and overlapping roles within and between water, energy, health, waste, and other sectors, as well as agencies at different governmental levels, have often been cited as institutional barriers to implementing effective and inclusive climate adaptation and mitigation plans [48,57,58].…”

“…In the city governance settings, there are also multiple issues associated with coordinated and integrated planning in relation to the provision of housing and services [57,58], which directly affect adaptation and mitigation strategies, such as the HAP. While the provision of services falls under the responsibility of the municipality and other utility organizations, they have limited financial and administrative autonomy in India's federal structure to deliver their tasks.…”

“…With restricted political, administrative, and financial support, cities often tend to formulate climate action plans that are implementable with visible outcomes in the short run [57], a trend that is identifiable in mitigation and adaptation strategies such as the HAP. As a result, climate action plans are often funded by international donors, with measurable deliverables in a short time frame and often with narrow outcomes (ibid).…”

“…As a result, climate action plans are often funded by international donors, with measurable deliverables in a short time frame and often with narrow outcomes (ibid). As argued by Khosla and Bhardwaj [57], the upscaling of city mitigation and adaptation strategies requires engaging with the more politically difficult issues of managing trade-offs and making the decision-making process more democratic.…”

Energy demand transitions and climate mitigation in low-income urban households in India

“…More recently, a number of studies are focusing on energy demand, services and climate mitigation from developing countries (Sathaye and Meyers 1985, Ürge-Vorsatz and Novikova 2006, Ürge-Vorsatz and Novikova 2008, Cabeza et al 2014, Zheng et al 2014, Ahmad et al 2015, Schaffrin and Reibling 2015, Rao and Ummel 2017, Yu et al 2018, and on urban transitions and climate mitigation (Bulkeley 2013, Evans et al 2016, Raven et al 2017, Luque-Ayala et al 2018, Peng and Bai 2018, Khosla and Bhardwaj 2019. The literature on the role of energy related practices (Shove and Warde 2002, Shove and Pantzar 2005, Stephenson et al 2010, Spaargaren 2011, Lutzenhiser 2014, Hess et al 2018 and behaviors in reducing residential demand (Langevin et al 2013, Frederiks et al 2015, Hong et al 2016, Huebner et al 2016, Delzendeh et al 2017, D'Oca et al 2018, Ding et al 2018 is also growing.…”