The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India head, Angela Lusigi, has emphasized the need for cities of the future to be designed differently, with a greater emphasis on walkability, green and blue spaces, mixed land use, climate-sensitive architecture, and public spaces that reduce heat exposure while improving quality of life.
Lusigi stressed that cities cannot simply be hotter versions of today's cities with more cooling systems added, but rather must be designed to protect the most vulnerable populations from extreme heat.
She highlighted the importance of practical solutions, including cool roofs, shaded public spaces, reflective surfaces, urban forests, blue-green corridors, drinking water access points, and heat refuge spaces in schools, Anganwadi centres, and health facilities.
The UNDP has worked with India to develop its national adaptation plan, which incorporates some of these strategies, and has also developed a Model Heat Action Plan for Patna District, which provides a strong example of how cities can prepare for extreme heat.
Lusigi emphasized that adaptation planning must be about protecting people, livelihoods, and development gains, and that it must become an integral part of development planning, public investment, and economic decision-making.
She also stressed the need for financing adaptation at scale, and for embedding resilience into mainstream development finance, as well as mobilizing a broader ecosystem of actors, including international climate finance, private sector investment, banks, microfinance institutions, and cooperatives.
Lusigi highlighted the importance of channelling climate finance through institutions that are already closest to communities, such as municipalities, local governments, self-help groups, microfinance institutions, and community-based organizations.
She also emphasized the need to make better use of existing development programmes that already have delivery systems and beneficiary networks in place, and to direct climate finance towards the communities facing the greatest risks.
Finally, Lusigi stressed the importance of integrating climate and biodiversity considerations into planning and investment decisions from the outset, rather than addressing them as an afterthought, and of drawing on both innovation and traditional ecological knowledge to create development models that are both environmentally sustainable and economically viable.
