Kochi braces for climate change

KOCHI: Based on the studies carried out on climate change scenario and its impacts on Kochi, a ‘city resilience strategy’ will be drafted soon. As a follow-up action of the study jointly conducted by International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) South Asia, IIT Delhi and PIK University, Germany, a pilot intervention programme will also be held in Kochi.

Ahead of drafting the resilience strategy, the civic body and ICLEI are organising a Shared Learning Dialogue (SLD) workshop on Friday attended by experts from across the world. The two-year study has identified the city’s major risks regarding climate change. Even after the agencies have submitted the survey findings more than a year ago, the recommendations were put on the backburner with no steps taken to prepare project proposals based on them.

Kochi was one of the cities selected for the project ‘Asian Cities Adapt – Impact of Climate Change in Target Cities in India’ in 2014 as part of which the studies were carried out.

“Now, the city corporation in collaboration with ICLEI wants to continue the project and take the studies to its logical conclusion by developing a City Resilience Strategy and conducting a pilot intervention in the city. The project would be undertaken with the technical assistance and funding of the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) programme, which is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation,” said Dr Rajan Chedambath, director of Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (C-hed), which coordinates the project implementation for the civic body. With this, Kochi would be one of the 40 cities of four countries, India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Indonesia, under the global network.