Cities and Climate Co-benefits

Abstract

The New Urban Agenda (NUA) was launched during Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, which took place in Quito, Ecuador, from 17 to 20 October 2016. This was one of the major global policy deliberations after the negotiation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. A key challenge remains how to actualize development goals without exacerbating the causes and consequences of climate change. Cities in developing countries particularly face an uphill task to become sustainable. Most of the climate research and action in the developed world like the US, Europe and Japan focused on mitigation strategies. Cities in developing countries until recently have had a limited research on climate response, that too pre-occupied with adaptation agenda. The co-benefit approach tries to bridge this gap, with integration of mitigation and adaptation agendas, vertical and horizontal coordination between sectors and scales of intervention. In this regard, India and other rapidly developing countries have the historical chance of following a different path of urban development. There are tremendous opportunities to harness massive urban climate co-benefits, which will be the only way to improve the well-being of the existing and growing number of urban dwellers without threatening the health of the planet and its inhabitants. This research will present a conceptual framework to investigate the different aspects of climate co-benefits relevant for Indian cities.