Agencies, states must fight climate change together

With 98% urbanisation, Delhi already has the highest urban cover in India. It may be located far away from the melting glaciers and the surging seas, but it still faces the threat of climate hazards such as storms, floods, drought, heat waves, smog, groundwater depletion and outbreak of vector- and- water-borne diseases.

As global warming was hotly debated over the past two weeks in Poland’s Katowice, experts agreed that much of the responsibility of fighting climate change rested on cities that together contribute to over 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

A ‘Summary for Urban Policymakers’, released in Katowice last week, emphasised that changes to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius must be made not only by national governments and the private sector but also by cities and its citizens. The report sought interventions in the use of energy, land and ecosystems, urban infrastructure and industry.

With 98% urbanisation, Delhi already has the highest urban cover in India. It may be located far away from the melting glaciers and the surging seas, but it still faces the threat of climate hazards such as storms, floods, drought, heat waves, smog, groundwater depletion and outbreak of vector- and- water-borne diseases.

Studies have shown that during 1991-2013, high-temperature days in Delhi increased by 6.3 days per decade and that, since 1990, there was a consistent increase in the night temperatures in the city, leading to an overall warming. Researchers blamed rapid urbanisation and over-concretisation of land surfaces for turning Delhi into a heat island. This is aggravated by machine heat generated by vehicles, generators and air-conditioners.

After a long wait, the Delhi government says it has formulated a five-year climate change action plan, which it will soon submit to the Centre for approval. Like all other state plans, this one, too, will have to be revised next year to include the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and the targets of the Paris Agreement. But an official involved in drafting the plan said the broad contours based on seven national missions — solar power, energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, greening, agriculture and strategic knowledge — will remain the same.

The biggest threat that Delhi faces, according to the official, is water stress. The NITI Aayog has already warned the city could effectively run out of groundwater by 2020. The natural sources have shrunk and the Yamuna water is over-extracted, leaving little to maintain the minimum flow required to keep the river alive.

Demand-side management and investment in recycling and reuse of water will be the key measure in Delhi’s climate change action plan, said the official. But no such plan can be complete without reviving the Yamuna, which remains the city’s best bet for long-term water security.

Methane fumes damage the climate, and according to the United Nations Environment Programme, waste reduction and management can cut global emissions by 20%. But garbage management is perhaps the most challenging aspect of Delhi’s climate action plan.

Three of the city’s four landfills ran out of space a decade ago but only one has been sealed for reclamation. In two of these, trash emits harmful methane and frequently catches fire. Landfills should anyway be the last option for waste management. Recycling reduces the trash load sent to dumpsites but is yet to take off across the city. Instead, municipalities have been installing waste-to-energy plants, which experts say, release toxic pollutants.

Coal-fired power plants are the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide. To decarbonise the grid, Delhi’s draft climate plan seeks to increase the share of renewable energy, mainly solar and wind. Right now, Delhi has only 3% of its power sourced from the renewables while at least 62% comes from coal.

Having shut down its coal-fired Badarpur plant, the government says it is making efforts to reduce dependence on older, inefficient thermal units located outside the city. It also set a target to source 18-20% of Delhi’s electricity from renewables by next year. This shift and schemes to augment local generation will be necessary to power the electric vehicles that the government aims to roll out soon.

Promotion of energy-efficient buildings, green streets and pavements, non-motorised transport and increasing tree cover etc are some of the other key priorities spelt out in the city’s climate action plan, the official said. But the real test will be on how quickly and efficiently it is implemented.

In a city where basic governance suffers due to multiple authorities, getting all agencies on board will be a task. At the same time, the plans chalked out by the neighbouring states may or may not mind or address the challenges of the National Capital Region. As we finally brace to meet the challenge, let’s remember that climate change follows no boundaries — administrative or political.