ARTICLE | Climate Change
Meeting climate & SDG goals together
C
ities are growing by leaps and bounds. Currently, almost 55 per cent of the global population lives in cities. This figure is estimated to grow to 68 per cent by 2050. In this decade, which is also the ‘Decade of Action’ to accelerate the pace of actions to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), every region in the world is going to urbanize fast. However, it is estimated that 96 per cent of this urban growth will take place in the less developed regions of East Asia, South Asia and Africa with three countries—India, China and Nigeria—accounting for 35 per cent of the total increase in global urban population from 2018 to 2050. Cities are the most happening places as economies and aspirations meet there. But then, they are developing at the cost of the rural areas and local ecosystems. As rural people migrate into cities in large numbers, and as cities aspire to grow more, cities are battling with many challenges. Cities have not only become symbols of prosperity but also synonymous to some of the world’s biggest challenges such as poverty, gender-based discrimination, inequality in several fronts including water and sanitation,
42 September 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
and increasing vulnerabilities due to climate change impacts such as sea rise, extreme precipitation events induced flash floods, heat stress, so on and so forth.
Climate change and cities
On the September 2nd, Governor of New York Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency to help New Yorkers affected by hurricane Ida. The hurricane unloaded a catastrophic deluge that, according to some climatologists, should only occur once over a 200-to-500 year period. However, that has become a regular phenomenon now. “More than seven inches of rain fell in Central Park over a period of 12 hours, with 3.15 inches of it pouring down in a single hour, setting a new record that was only just broken during Hurricane Henri last month”, the CNN reported. City leaders were caught completely off guard, the agency said. “In the past two weeks, New York City has had three of its top 20 heaviest one-hour downpours on record; four of the top 20 have come this year. On August 21, it received 1.69 and 1.84 inches in back-to-back hours. Another top-20 one-hour rainfall occurred on July 8, when 1.54 inches fell in a single hour”, reported the
Washington Post. About 50 people were said to be dead as an impact of this hurricane that brought heavy flooding rainfall that outsmarted one of the world’s best sewer systems and the subway’s water pumping mechanism. That is for a city that is not only the most happening one in the world, but termed as one of the best in taking climate actions that are aimed at sharp reductions in carbon emissions by 2050. As I write this piece, here in India, the capital city of Delhi is going through a historical weather moment. Abundance of rainfall has crippled water supply of many parts of the city. Till mid-September, Delhi has received 1,160.8 mm of rainfall, the highest since 1964 and third highest since records have been kept by the Indian Meteorological Dept. Experts believe due to late withdrawal of monsoon, which is expected by the end of third week of September, Delhi will receive more rainfall. The capital city has already witnessed several spells of floods and related woes including water logging of several areas and traffic problems on the streets. The Delhi deluge has disrupted piped water supply to many parts of Southwest Delhi and it is going to continue till the end of third week tentatively.
