Cities  

Climate-smart cities represent immense potential for sustainable habitats across India, through enhanced liveability, improved incomes, and better working conditions – contributing to poverty alleviation. They also promote increased energy efficiency and access to clean energy, and build resilience to climate risks and extremes, such as heat and floods. Yet, the conditions of modern cities present several challenges to such progress.

Many urban areas are characterised by inefficient use of land and resources, resulting in poorly planned urban expansions, congestion, sprawl, and an increase in unregulated and informal settlements that lack basic infrastructure and services. They also contribute to climate change; cities across the world account for over 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Buildings in India alone account for 25% of the country’s energy consumption and emit over 160 Megatonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide. These emissions are two-fold: first, from the construction of the buildings themselves, which typically use significant quantities of emissions-intensive materials like steel and cement that require deep systemic changes to decarbonise; and, second, from the energy they consume as hotspots of residential and industrial activity, including heating and cooling needs. Thus, developing a sustainable buildings sector involves a medley of interventions that address both construction and energy use, including cooling solutions, alternative design and materials, energy efficiency, and more.

In the transport sector, 90% of emissions arise from road transport, powered by fossil fuel consumption and additionally causing air pollution, which is one of the major contributors to disease in India after malnutrition. Public transport systems in several cities are faced with a shortage of buses and trains, poor scheduling and frequency, inefficient routes, and low last-mile connectivity, restricting access to education and employment for the urban poor. As urban areas grow, inhabitants need access to affordable, low-carbon public transport and safe, non-motorised forms of travel (like cycling lanes and wider footpaths) to improve mobility and access to essential services. In addition, the move from carbon-intensive transport to electric vehicles will require the emergence of new infrastructure (such as charging stations) and capacity building for the workforce to service and deploy these technologies.

India’s cities are also witnessing a rapid decline in ecologically sensitive zones, natural ecosystems like water bodies, vegetation, and open permeable spaces, due to expansion of urban infrastructure. This decline in blue (rivers, lakes, wetlands) and green (trees, parks, gardens, forests) cover is reducing urban capacity to cope with climate-related shocks or risks, like floods, droughts, cyclones, extreme temperatures, and more. Residents of low-income and informal settlements in cities are more vulnerable to these risks, due to a lack of access to climate-resilient infrastructure; their living conditions are determined by poor urban planning, and high population density, as well as low quality energy and air, unsafe water, and informal sanitation systems.

Heatwaves, for example, are becoming longer and more intense – India could become the first country to break the human survivability limit for heat. This risk is particularly acute in urban areas due to the urban heat island effect, which causes temperatures to be warmer than suburban and rural areas by up to 2 degrees Celsius. This is due to several factors, including the use of heat-absorbing materials, reduced urban vegetation, poor spatial design, vehicular emissions, and energy-intensive buildings. Extreme heatwaves in summer are increasing human mortality and discomfort in cities, with dire consequences for sleep, health (including nausea, headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, kidney and liver failure, increased infectious diseases), and education. Economic productivity is also threatened by heat, reducing safe working hours and lowering efficiency and incomes. Women, faced with household responsibilities, children, and the elderly in urban informal settlements are disproportionately impacted by heat stress, having to spend most of their time indoors in houses that are poorly ventilated and cannot adapt to extreme temperatures. Migrant workers and heat-exposed labourers are also extremely vulnerable due to a lack of adequate shelter, housing, and legal protections.

Many cities are also suffering frequent inundation and severe waterlogging, due to land use changes like the encroachment of green spaces and water bodies, and over concretisation (increasing impervious surfaces), and ineffective storm water drainage systems; as well as increasing climate risks like erratic rainfall and stronger storm surges along the coasts. The consequences of such flooding range from stagnation-induced spread of infectious water- and vector-borne diseases, electrocution, heavy economic damage to public and private infrastructure, and the disruption of critical services like healthcare, education, food, and potable water, and are disproportionately experienced by residents of urban informal settlements, migrant workers, and homeless individuals. Cities are also prone to drought, due to their high water consumption and falling groundwater levels, threatening inhabitants with acute water scarcity and difficulties in accessing quality water, sanitation, and hygiene.