Abstract: Climate change and sustainable urban development are both important subjects of discussions and debates in the present day world. The ‘urban millennium’ has arrived. Global warming leading to climate change is playing havoc on nature and human society. Urban environment and city people are also being largely affected by climate change in different parts of the world including India. Such impacts are multi-dimensional. Our cities being centers of economic growth and hubs of accompanying activities contribute to climate change. Climate change, in its turn, affects the cities and city people as well. Sustainable development of cities in India thus faces serious challenges. Addressing and mitigating those have become an imperative. A proper climate action plan can help in resolving the problem and make our cities more sustainable in nature.
(Keywords: Climate change, Global warming, Urban millennium, Sustainable urban development)
Introduction
In the present century the issues of climate change and sustainable urban development have both become important subjects of debates and discussions in the academia and the centers of policy making alike. Both urbanization and climate change have emerged as expanding phenomena in the 21st century. These two processes are closely interlinked. Climate change affects the cities and city people. Cities, in turn, also largely influence the climate. Climate change leads to urban environmental pollution which has its adverse impact on the city people. At the same time, the activities undertaken by the urban dwellers over time and space and the built environments affect the climate. As climate change has occupied the center stage in the public debate in the current century, discourse on sustainable development of cities, on the other hand, now increasingly focuses on energy and resource efficiency. This essay is a modest attempt to examine the impact of climate change on urban sustainability, with particular reference to India. We will first focus on the process of urbanization in India in recent times. The meaning of climate change, its causes and impacts will be dealt with next. In the third part of the present essay we will explore the effects of climate change on cities in general, and Indian urban centers in particular. The last section will briefly focus on the climate action policies adopted in our country to address the environmental challenges to sustainable cities emanating from climate change.
The 21st century has been witnessing an urban revolution. According to a United Nations (UN) estimate, 60% of the global population is expected to live in cities by 2030. The global urban population is expected to increase by 84% by 2050 – from 3.4 billion in 2009 to 6.3 billion in 2050. It is also estimated that 93% of this urban growth will occur in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (UN, 2005). Since the second half of the twentieth century urbanization became a powerful force throughout most of the world. In the present millennium, the process of profound urban transformation is unfolding mainly in the countries of the south. These countries are presently experiencing a a faster rate of growth of urban population than the developed countries (UN, 2014). And India is no exception.
India’s Urban Landscape
Since independence India has witnessed a steady growth of its urban population. Between 1951 -61 the urban population in our country increased by 26 per cent and 18 per cent of India’s total population was rewinding in urban areas (Shaw, 2012:12). In the periods that followed, India’s urban population increased rapidly and new cities and towns emerged as well. As per Census 2011, India’s urban population was 377 million (Government of India, 2011). Presently India’s urban population of 410 million makes it the second largest urban community in the world, China being the first. Three Indian cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are among the most populous in the world. India is currently on the “brink of urban revolution”. The urban population of the country is expected to reach 600 million by 2031, which will amount to 40 per cent of the world population. It is also estimated that a majority of the Indians will be living in cities and towns by 2050 (Kumar and Meshram, 2022: xv). Urbanization in India is thus an expanding phenomenon. Today’s India does not live in villages alone, but also in its cities.
There is no denying the fact that the process of urbanization is inevitable and irreversible in the present day world. This is true for India as well. The challenges of urbanization are manifold. Increasing concentration of people in our cities has put tremendous pressure on the existing infrastructure and the delivery of basic civic services and amenities (Mukhopadhyay, 2018). Rapid urbanization is leading to environmental pollution and degradation. More and more concentration of people in cities mean more and more consumption and ever increasing use of natural resources for more and more production. Such consumption of natural resources, including non-renewable energy, leads to emission of greenhouse gases resulting environmental pollution. And this directly affects the process of climate change. The process of climate change, in turn, also affects the urban environment to a large extent. We will focus on this both way relationship in detail. But before that, let’s take a glance to the phenomenon of climate change.
Climate Change: Meaning, Causes, Impacts
Climate change refers to long term shifts in temperature and weather patterns. It may span over several eras to some million years. We can at present very well feel such changes in our day to day life. The normal weather cycle has largely been disturbed. Warmer summers, less cool winters, erratic rainfalls during monsoon have become common phenomenon. Natural disasters like floods, droughts, landslides, cyclones, forest fires and so on have increased in number, and become more and more unpredictable and severe in nature.
Scientists state that climate change occurs due to both natural and man-made factors. Climate shifts can be natural due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But, they argue, that since 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (United Nations, 2017). Other kinds of human activities, such as cleaning land and deforestation, intensive animal farming, and use of chemical fertilizers also contribute to climate change. According to climate scientists, the main factor behind climate change is ‘global warming’ which is one of the most severe environmental crises of the present time. To put it simply, global warming refers to the increase in earth’s surface temperature. This surface includes both land and water. This increase is measured with reference to a certain point of the human time scale in recorded history. The accurate record keeping began since 1800. Since the Industrial Revolution, the global annual temperature increased in total by a little more than 1degree Celsius. Between 1800 and 1980 it rose on average by 0.07 degrees Celsius in each decade. Since 1981, the rate has more than doubled. During the last four decades, the global annual temperature of the earth has increased by 0.18 degree Celsius (https://www.nrdc.org.global warming). Our planet is now getting warmer than ever before. The average temperature of the earth’s surface is presently near about 1.2 degree warmer than it was in the late 1800. And it has become warmer than at any time in the last100, 000 years. Scientists have pointed out that the period 2011-20 was the warmest, and each of the last four decades has been warmer than any previous decade since 1850 (United Nations,2017). Such warmer temperatures over time are changing weather patterns and disrupting the usual balance of the nature thus posing a number of risks to human beings and all other forms of life on earth. Global warming is, thus, the phenomenon of gradual increase in the average temperature of the earth.
Global warming is caused mainly by the emission of too much of Greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluro carbon. Of these, carbon dioxide is the largest component. Burning of fossil fuels – coal, oil, and natural gas – is primarily responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It accounts for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide (Co2) emissions. Increasing concentration of Co2 and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere. This trapped energy comes from incoming solar radiation absorbed by the earth’s surface and re-radiated back into the atmosphere as infrared energy (https://www.britannica.com). The greenhouse gas emissions act like a blanket wrapped around the earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures. As a result, our planet is now ‘hotter’ than ever before.
In this context we will now like to refer to a very significant event occurring presently in the nature. Scientists state that we are presently passing through the phase of “6th mass extinction of Species”. Such mass extinction is a very important phenomenon in the history of planet earth. Mass extinction of species refers to the death and destruction of 75% of the living species of a particular time. During the earlier five phases of mass extinction, seventy five to ninety per cent of the species were destructed. The reason behind was the then global warming. That increase in temperature resulted purely due to natural factors such as, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters. Human race has no existence, and hence no role to play in those processes of extinction. But in the current phase of mass extinction of species, human beings play the role of catalyst in the process. Human actions have become primarily responsible for global warming and climate change. Scholars argue that due to the ever increasing and foundational impacts of human activities on climatic conditions, we have reached a new era called ‘Anthroposcene’ – meaning “the human driven age of the planet” (Sach,2012). Noted historian Dipesh Chakrabarty, for example, has dealt with this point in details in his recent works (Chakrabarty, 2021, 2023). He has argued that due to a rapid growth of urban population, more and more use of technology and the consumerist lifestyle, the human being today has emerged like a ‘geological agent’ who exerts tremendous impact upon the nature.
Climate change is, thus, closely related with global warming. It has become a major concern for the humanity as well as other forms of life on the earth. The impact of climate change is multi-dimensional. We will first identify its impacts on our life and livelihoods in general, and then focus on its specific effects on the cities and city people.
General impacts of climate change :- a) due to rise in earth’s temperature, the ecological equilibrium of land and water surfaces gets disturbed leading to increasing occurrences of heat waves, cyclones, floods, droughts, land erosion, forest fires and so on; b) melting of glacial ice caps and rising sea levels making coastal areas and people living therein highly vulnerable to submersion; c) such threats lead to forceful eviction of people from their habitats and result in climate migration and climate refugees ; d) warming and acidifying of oceans; e) loss of biodiversity – extinction of species at a rate 1000 times greater than at any other time at recorded human history; f) erratic rainfalls affecting agricultural productivity to a large extent, particularly in developing countries including India where agriculture is mainly rain fed; g) too much of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere resulting in loss of protean and other mineral components in food and also its nutritional value; h) excessive temperature affecting individual’s labour power leading to loss of man days in industries and fall in industrial productivity; and i) negative impacts on public health such as increase in vector and water borne diseases, dengue, malaria etc., higher rate of mortality particularly among people in the age group of 65 and above.
It is thus evident that climate change affects our lives in a number of ways poses major threats to our wellbeing. Its impact on our cities is particularly significant in the context of the present ‘urban millennium’ we are living in. Let us now explore the interrelationship between climate change and urban sustainability.
How Cities Affect Climate Change
Cities are engines of growth and economic prosperity. They attract a large number of workers in the urban labour markets and draw investments. Over time, concentration of people in urban areas increases because cities provide better opportunities for housing, health, education, jobs, recreation, and so on. However, on the negative side, increasing concentration of people in cities puts tremendous pressure on the existing urban infrastructure. Delivery of basic civic services and amenities in our cities are largely affected. There is crisis of pure drinking water, mushrooming of urban slums due to lack of affordable housing, improper sewage and sanitation and inadequate solid waste management. All this lead to urban environmental degradation and pollution, affecting the climate in the long run. As centers of economic development diverse activities are being carried out in our cities and towns which profoundly affect the urban environment.
Cities and city people affect the climate in a number of ways. Increasing amount of carbon emissions in the urban areas is one of the major factors contributing to climate change. Indian cities contribute to climate change to a large extent through carbon emissions. Large concentration of population in Indian cities, particularly in the metropolises, results in increasing levels of energy consumption and large number of greenhouse gas emissions. One of the major sources of such emissions is the modes of urban transport – both public and private. There has been a steady increase of private cars in our cities in the past few years due to easy availability and affordability. Naturally that has led to more and more burning of fossil fuels in the form of petrol and diesel increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the city’s atmosphere. As cities grow in size, emissions from transports also increases. Creation of ‘urban sprawls’ in India in recent times has aggravated this problem due to more and more use of private transport to reach the distant urban localities. Cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad emit much more per capita carbon dioxide than smaller cities like Bhubaneswar, Shimla, Pondicherry etc. (Dodman, 2009). Other than transport, carbon emissions in our cities are also caused by the provisions of various public services such as water supply, sewerage, and street lighting (Sridhar, 2010, p.347). Industries located within urban areas are also a major source of emission of greenhouse gases. Energy consumed for heating and lighting of residential and commercial buildings also generate a substantial amount of greenhouse gases. There is thus a direct relationship between urbanization and climate change. As discussed, cities influence the climate in a number of ways. However, climate change, in its turn, also largely affects the cities.
Climate Change Impacts On Cities
Present day cities are usually characterized by a high concentration of population density and economic activities. Indian cities are no exception. This makes them more vulnerable to climate change. Climate change affects our cities and city people in multiple ways (Revi, 2008).
Indian cities are experiencing extreme climatic conditions in the forms of droughts, floods, and heat waves.
The amount of total annual summer/monsoon rainfall in India shows a declining trend over the years in recent periods as a result of erratic weather conditions. This directly affects the volume of food production and the country’s GDP. Climate change affects water availability in both rural and urban areas due to its effects on the hydrological cycle. Decreasing rainfall trends are resulting in drought situations. Droughts affect both the quantity and uality of water. Urban areas are steadily expanding in our country. Rising concentration of urban population has created increasing demand for water. Overuse of both surface and groundwater resources to meet such growing demands are resulting in the degradation and contamination of water sources. Urban water management, thus, has emerged as a major challenge for sustainable urban development in India.
Changes in climatic conditions also often result in extreme rainfall. Rapid expansion of urban areas has been a major factor behind extreme precipitation in our cities. Urban expansion results in the changes in the pattern of urban land covers, which in turn affects the extreme weather events such as excessive rainfall. There is regional variation in the occurrence of rainfall extremes. Southern, central and western zones of India are more vulnerable than the rest of the country. The floods of 2005 and 2015 in Mumbai and Chennai are examples how climate change affects our cities (Devanand et.al, 2022, p.48). Such urban floods are becoming more common having devastating impacts on the city people.
Warmer weathers for a period of time are resulting in the rise of sea water level. This poses serious threats for our coastal cities and low-lying areas. Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Goa, Daman and Diu are, for example, more vulnerable to the sea level rise, tropical cyclones and riverine flooding. They even face the risk of submersion in near future threatening the loss of lives and livelihoods for the millions. Rising sea levels can also damage basic urban infrastructures such as water supply, power systems and public transport.
More frequent and severe heat waves affect the urban residents in a number of ways. High temperatures and humidity strain human body, reduce workforce efficiency, result in loss of man days and hamper economic productivity. Climate change affects human health in cities both directly and indirectly. Direct health impacts on our city people are death or physical injury from weather extremes such as floods and storms. Indirect impacts include increase in the number of water-borne diseases, poor air quality, and decline in the quantity and quality of food.
Climate change also affects the physical assets of the cities which are used for economic production, the costs of raw materials, and inputs to economic production.
Climate change affects the urban residents to a large extent as a whole. However, its impact varies among different sections of the city people. People belonging to low-income groups and the marginalized are more seriously affected than the others. They are mostly at risk because of their inability to avoid the direct or indirect impacts of climate change. They live in poor quality of houses or in slums, have inadequate sewerage and sanitation in their localities, are unable to shift from their present habitat to a better place, or find a job when their livelihoods are in danger. The infants and elderly within such communities also are largely affected by heat waves and its resultant impacts on illness, or death. Thus, in our cities, climate challenges promote inequity among the urban residents.
It is evident that urbanization and climate change are inextricably related. The impact of climate change on Indian cities has been multi-dimensional in nature. It largely affects our urban sustainability. As the natural environment in our cities and towns get largely disturbed by climatic changes leading to environmental pollution and degradation, sustainability of our cities are in question. Proper urban planning can address these problems adequately. Sustainable development of cities has thus become an imperative in present day India.
Towards Sustainable Cities
The problems of environmental degradation and pollution gradually emerged as a worldwide phenomenon since the second half of the 20th century. As these took a global dimension, need was slowly felt to address the same collectively in the international level through the initiatives of global organizations. A ‘Global Environmental Regime’ has gradually developed. It started in early 1970s. The first UN Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972. In the same year, a group of research scholars at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published a report named The Limits to Growth. In 1987 the UN World Commission on Environment and Development brought out its report entitled Our Common Future, also popularly known as the Brundtland Commission Report. Through such initiatives the UN was trying to warn the countries of the world about the imminent danger of pursuing models of economic growth which leads to ecological problems. It was in the Brundtland report that the concept of ‘sustainable development’ first came into limelight. In the report the cities were presented as part of the urban challenge. It noted that cities in developing countries face several major environmental challenges. The Commission also stated that gaps are widening between the industrial and developing countries in terms of economic development and income inequalities (Kumar and Meshram, 2022, p.2). The year 1988 was another important milestone in the process of global consciousness and initiatives about addressing the environmental problems. In that year the Inter-Governmental Panel for Climate Change was established. It published its First Assessment Report, AR1 in 1990. Since then such reports, which presents the current data about climate change, are being published at regular intervals. AR 6 was published in 2021. Following the path of the Brundtland Commission, the Earth Summit 1 was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. The conference resulted in the emergence of three very important things :- i) United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), ii) Convention for Biodiversity, and iii) Agenda 21. Concerns and anxieties about global warming and climate change became in international policy discourse particularly since the Rio Conference. The establishment of UNFCC was in fact a result of that. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development was established in the same year. In 1994 50 nations of the world put their concurrence to the UNFCC document/treaty, and it became functional as per the rules of the UN. It was decided that the signatory countries will once in a year to discuss the issues of climate change and global warming. Thus started the Conference of Parties (COP), the first of which was held in Berlin in 1995. Since then 29 such COPs have been held. The last one – the 29th COP – was held in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2024. In these conferences initiatives were taken to reduce the amount of carbon emission. One such major step was the framing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 during the 3rd COP. Restrictions were imposed upon the developed industrialized nations to limit their emission of greenhouse gases. It was recommended that developed countries have to reduce their carbon emission from 6 to 8 per cent from the amount which they used to emit in 1990s. However this could not be realized due to vehement opposition from USA and other wealthy nations of the West. We should note in this context that sustainable development of our cities depends to a large extent upon low carbon urban growth.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was proclaimed at the UN General Assembly in September 2015 and adopted by 193 member states in January 2016(Kumar, 2022, p.5). It was a global normative framework for sustainable development. It included a total of 17 goals and 169 targets to form the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. One of its major aims was to combat climate change (UN, 2015). Following the path of his proclamation the Paris Climate Treaty was signed by 95 member countries in 2015. This was another major milestone in the global concern and initiative to address the issues of global warming and searching the path for sustainable development. The signatories set the goal of keeping the surface temperature of the earth within the limit of 1.5 degree Celsius and to make the year 2050 the year of ‘Net Zero Emission”. Unfortunately almost a decade has passed and we are still far away from reaching the target. Even after 29 sessions of the COPs the major issues related with global warming and climate change such as reduction of carbon emission, creating a Compensatory Climate Fund, Climate Financing and so on still remain unresolved. A major reason behind this is that global environmental regime faces opposition from a much more powerful regime – the global neoliberal market regime. Political and economic supremacy of the powerful nations and the North-South divide stand as stumbling blocks in the way of sustainable development.
Of the17 SDGs, Goal 11 particularly deals with urban sustainability. It reads, “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” (Kumar, 2022, p.9). It states that as majority of the population is expected to live in cities, cities matter to a large extent in the process of sustainable development. Climate change, disaster management, sustainable development, and urban development are all closely linked with one another.
In India, policy makers focus on three nodes to fulfill SDG11 – reforming the real estate sector, housing for all city residents through urban transformation, and sustainable urbanization. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Real Estate (Regulation and Development0 Act, 2016(RERA), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Prdhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), Smart Cities Mission are some of the flagship programs adopted for achieving sustainable urban development. The Government of India enacted the National Environment Policy in May 2006 which provided a broad framework on environment and climate change. This policy succeeded some earlier government policies on environment such as the National Forest Policy (1988), National Conservation Strategy and Policy Statement on Environment and Development (1992), Policy Statement on Abatement of Pollution (1992), and National Water Policy (2002). All this focused on environment management. The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) was adopted in June 2008. In pursuance to this plan, several national missions to combat climate change were launched by the central government.
During 2007 to 2009, the central government set up two high level policy making bodies to address the problem of climate change – first, the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change (PMCCC ) with the Prime minister as its chairperson in mid-2007, and second, the Special Envoy on Climate Change in January 2008. Later, in 2010, the Special Envoy was abolished to bestow greater responsibility to the Ministry of Environment and Forest, presently known as the Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change (Dubash and Joseph, 2016). Among the various missions launched under the initiative of the NAPCC some were directly related to the city. The National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, National Solar Mission and National Water Mission dealt with the built environment, energy requirements and water management in the urban areas. All three – habitat, energy and water – are essential to make our cities sustainable.
Since the beginning of 2010 there was a considerable rise in the climate change activities, largely due to the able leadership of the then Minister of Environment and Forests, Mr. Jairam Ramesh. The central government encouraged the states to state action plans for mitigating climate change. However since the middle of 2011 the momentum of climate action receded. Though some states prepared the action plans, their implementation was not always very successful. There was an absence of organizational coordination and strategic thinking at the national level and ad hoc institutional attempts were being made to address the problem of climate change. The goal of urban sustainability in India still remains an unachieved one.
Conclusion
The effects of rapid urbanization as well as climate change are thus quite serious and obvious. We cannot reverse either of the processes. What we can do is to put our sincere efforts to check the widespread adverse impacts of both to make our cities more sustainable. We have seen how the cities in India face climate stresses. Resiliency to climate stresses has become an imperative in the present time for urban sustainability. Sustainable urban development calls for a just and appropriate urban planning based on equity. It should aim at protecting the natural environment and social diversity. Economic growth in the city is to be pursued in a manner so that it can promote ‘good life’ for all the urban dwellers. Climate stresses such as floods, droughts, poor air quality, extreme heat waves and so on have to be mitigated. In recent decades there has been massive population concentration in Indian cities, particularly in the metropolitan areas. This has led to increasing energy consumption and greater levels of greenhouse gas emissions in cities. As a result cities have emerged as center of climate change initiatives.
In India the policies for sustainable urban development in general, and climate resilience in particular, have not been very comprehensive as a whole. Since 1990s the growth of Indian cities has been driven primarily by the neoliberal agenda. In the post liberalization era urban growth in our country has been marked by faster growth of large cities, journey from mega cities to metropolis, steady decline of manufacturing jobs, mushrooming of urban slums and squatter settlements, and serious degradation of urban environment. Urbanization is being shaped by corporate capital under the neoliberal policies of the state (Chatterjee, 2004). Increase in economic productivity and furthering economic growth are given much priority than the protection of the environment. Limitless use of natural resources is carried on regardless of the ‘carrying capacity’ of the planet earth. This largely contributes to environmental decline and climate excesses in the cities.
Climate challenges can be successfully addressed and cities can be made more sustainable only through a shift from the ‘anthropocentric’ to the ‘ecocentric’ approach to development. In our country we had a long tradition of living in harmony with nature. We had been practicing this since centuries. Unfortunately in the contemporary period we have forgotten that tradition. Consumerism has engulfed every aspects of our day to day living. It is high time we realize that consumerism can never lead to a sustainable way of life. Web the humans are only a part of the ecosystem, and thus have no right to abuse it forever and putting the survival of other species as well as our own selves at peril. We should keep in mind that nature cannot be tamed; it must be respected. Living in harmony with nature alone can ensure the survival of mankind and nature alike. We conclude this essay by mentioning a proverb popular among an indigenous American community named ‘Cree’. It says, ‘Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money’.
________________________
References
Chakrabarty,Dipesh. (2021, 2023). The Climate of History in a Planetary Age; One Planet, many worlds; the climate parallax. Chicago; Chicago University Press.
Chatterjee,Partha(2004) Politics of the Governed. New York: Columbia University Press.
Devanand,Anjana Ghosh,Subimal and Banerji,Pradipta. Climate risk and resilience in Indian cities. In Kumar,Ashok and Meshram,D.S.(eds.) Sustainable Development Goals and Indian Cities : Inclusion, Diversity and Citizen Rights.(2022). London: Routledge.
Dodman,David. (2009). Blaming Cities for Climate Change? An Analysis of Urban Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories. Environment and Urbanization, 21(1).
Dubash, Navroz K and Neha, b Joseph, Evolution of Institutions for Climate Policy in India, Economic & Political Weekly, 2016, 51 (3): 44 -54.
Government of India) (2011). Census of India 2011.
Kumar, Ashok and Meshram, D.S.(eds.).(2022) Sustainable Development Goals and Indian Cities.
Kumar, Ashok.(2022). Introduction, In Kumar and Meshram (eds.).
Mukhopadhyay,Ambarish (2018). Governing Urban West Bengal:The Left Front Experiment. In Chatterjee, Rakhahari and Basu, Partha Pratim (eds.). West Bengal Under the Left 1977 -2011. Kolkata; Levant Books.
Revi.A (2008). Climate Change Risks: An Adaptation and Mitigation Agenda for Indian Cities. Environment and Urbanization, 20 (1), 207 -30.
Shaw, Annapurna (2012). Indian Cities. New Delhi: OUP.
Sridhar,S.K. (2010). Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, and Impacts in Indian Cities, India Infrastructure Report. https:// irade.org>impactonIndiancities. Accessed on 2 December 2024.
UN –Habitat (2005). World Urbanization Report, New York: United Nations.
United Nations (2014). World Urbanization Prospects, New York: UN.
United Nations (2015). Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, New York: United Nations.
United Nations (2017). Climate Action. http:// www.en/climate change/what-is-climate-change, Accessed on 12 November 2024.
https:// www.nrdc.org> stories> global-warming-101, Accessed on 4 November 2024.