FULL VIDEO available here!

According to Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, released by the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change in March this year, Asian cities are expected to suffer particularly acutely from the impacts of global warming. Flooding, heat stress, extreme precipitation, drought and water scarcity are already having a profound effect on city dwellers across the continent. Through a three year project to increase local urban resilience, eight cities in India and the Philippines have been working to lessen climate change impacts in their cities.

The AsianCitiesAdapt project brought together science and policy to support local governments in developing a local response to climate change. Working with scientists from the Indian Institute for Technology Delhi, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Germany) and ICLEI offices in Europe, South Asia and Southeast Asia, cities focused on making the most of limited resources to come up with effective climate change adaptation strategies.

In a film released at the Resilient Cities 2014 Conference in Bonn (Germany) last Friday, city officials and scientists shared their experiences of developing and implementing local action plans. Participants placed a particular emphasis on the importance of good communication, forward planning and simple actions to help communities cope in increasingly difficult urban conditions. Film makers Bernd Hezel and Ephraim Broschkowski from the Climate Media Factory in Potsdam (Germany) were also present to answer questions from audience members.

The four Indian cities that were a part of the AsianCitiesAdapt project were Howrah, Madurai, Kochi and Vishakhapatnam. The video features the city of Howrah, together with interviews of the ICLEI South Asia project team and Professor Dash, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. 

AsianCitiesAdapt has been part of the International Climate Initiative. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.

To know more about the activities of the ACA project in the South Asian region, visit:

http://southasia.iclei.org/our-goals/resilient-city/asiancitiesadapt/