National Level Workshop on Multi-Level Action for Climate Resilient Cities

Workshop Summary

DAY 1

The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Emani Kumar, Executive Director, ICLEI South Asia with opening remarks from Mr. Hans Peter Egler, Senior Director of Public Affairs and Head of the Cities Practice, South Pole, Ms. Ridhima Sud, Sr. Thematic Advisor for Climate Change, (SDC) and Smt. Naynaben Pedhadiya, Hon. Mayor, Rajkot Municipal Corporation. The speakers highlighted the need to close the climate finance gap and support cities in developing bankable projects that integrate climate action into municipal delivery and socio-economic development.
The National Level Workshop saw participation from 27 city governments across 16 states, including engineers, deputy commissioners, sectoral experts, research institutes and other non-government agencies. As highlighted by Soumya Chaturvedula, Deputy Director, ICLEI South Asia, the CapaCITIES project supported cities in developing pilot projects including an urban flood early warning system in Tirunelveli, solar powered opportunity charging stations for electric buses in Ahmedabad, catchment area and watershed management approaches in urban planning and restoration of water bodies in Tiruchirappalli, implementation of a green mobility zone in Udaipur, implementation of Miyawaki forests in Vadodara, Udaipur and Siliguri, a scale-up case of a waste to bio-CNG facility and a floating solar project in Coimbatore, among others.
The workshop saw a high level panel discussion moderated by ICLEI South Asia, where key project city representatives including the Commissioner of Rajkot Municipal Corporation, Deputy Commissioner of Ahmedabad Corporation, Executive Engineer, Directorate of Local Bodies, Government of Rajasthan, General Manager (Smart Cities), Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation and the Chief Executive Officer from Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company highlighted some enabling factors driving local climate action in their cities.
The representatives emphasized on the need to embed the climate action plan within city development plans, ensure multilevel collaboration between local, state and national governments, institute a climate resilient and net zero city cell, engage with grassroot organizations to promote climate literacy, building the city’s capacity for data driven spatial planning, develop a state climate budget to support subnational action and allocate a climate budget with the city’s annual budget.
Two technical sessions were held, where representatives from the project cities described the technical processes involved in net zero climate resilient city planning and implementation including developing a greenhouse gas inventory, climate risk and vulnerability assessments and net zero cell implementation. The sessions also enumerated on the various sources of funding and stakeholder engagement processes that supported the cities in implementation.
The first day culminated in an international best practice sharing session with key insights on the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and Switzerland’s climate initiatives in driving political commitment and action for net zero from European cities.

Day 2

Project cities highlighted some of the key technical features, stakeholder engagement processes, institutional and financial mechanisms that supported the pilot project implementation. Highlights included formation of a coordination and monitoring committee in Udaipur, re-evaluating contractual agreements for public transport electrification in Ahmedabad and the important of catchment analysis for urban flood management.
The key highlight of the event was the Launch of the 7+1 Climate resilient city action plans, presided over by Shri Tokhan Sahu, Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. The launch was also attended by Shri Rahul Kapoor, Joint Secretary, MoHUA, Government of India and Mission Director, Smart Cities Mission, Shri Philippe Sas, Head of International Cooperation and Counsellor, SDC, Dr Debolina Kundu, Director, NIUA.
The dignitaries presented some valuable insights including Switzerland’s urban planning approach which has helped subnational climate action planning in Indian cities, the role of the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework in supporting innovative climate solutions in Indian cities, the need for initiatives like “Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam (one tree in the name of mother)” for collective ecosystem restoration and the proposed project preparation facility at NIUA, which is a first of its kind initiative to support the preparation of bankable projects in cities.
The workshop culminated with an engaging session on emerging avenues of climate finance and how to strengthen the capacities of municipalities to access green finance with representatives from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Indian Institute of Public Administration and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCOM).