Bangkok--26 Nov--Asian Institute of Technology
Urban Climate Change Research Network to prepare Second Assessment Report on Climate Change in Cities (ARC3-2) by 2015.
Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has been named a lead member of an international effort by top climate scientists to help cities around the world address the causes and consequences of climate change.
Dr. Shobhakar will be overseeing expert teams that will produce assessments on a range of issues, from urban health to food to water and energy systems, transportation, economics and private finance, and governance. The work is part of a larger effort by the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) to synthesize scientific knowledge and produce a resource for guiding cities in their response to climate change. The Second UCCRN Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3-2) will be published in 2015. City mayors praised the first report, published in 2011, as a practical, action-oriented resource.
Co-editors of the report include, besides Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal, Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig of Columbia University/NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. William Solecki of Hunter College of the City University of New York, Dr. Shagun Mehrotra of Milano at the New School, and Dr.Paty Romero-Lankao, of Urban Futures at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York City is a founder of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN).
Dr. Shobhakar also facilitated the three-day ARC3-2 Initiating Workshop convened in New York City held from 17-19 September 2013. In attendance were 110 urban climate change experts, stakeholders, and practitioners from Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.
UCCRN ARC3-2 will provide scientific knowledge that could be useful to signatories of the Durban Adaptation Charter, founded at the time of the climate change treaty conference in 2011. The Durban Adaptation Charter is now the basis for a comprehensive response plan underway in Dumangas Municipality, Philippines, which was presented at the ARC3-2 Initiating Workshop.
Says Dr. Dhakal, “Cities are crucial front-runners for global climate change mitigation as well as for addressing climate change impacts since more than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. Cities are disproportionately vulnerable to weather extremes like flooding from storm surges and heat waves and can provide opportunities for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.” Cities are important economic engines, promoting economic development and providing jobs that support their own residents as well as large numbers of families outside city boundaries. They are also a source of some of the most innovative efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, he adds. In addition, says Dr. Rosenzweig from NASA, “Cities already lead the action on responding to climate change. Our job is to help by providing the strongest possible physical and social science information and state-of-the-art knowledge so cities can prepare for rising temperatures and changing patterns of extreme weather events, and soften their impacts when they hit.”
“Sometimes,” said Patrick Driscoll of University of Aalborg, Copenhagen, “we assume that we can only learn from cities like us. For instance, in Copenhagen we know we can learn from Amsterdam. But Delhi might also have lessons for us.”
Even at this early stage, the ARC3-2 group is committed to including the advice and the voices of people generally not consulted on issues of urban planning until late in the process.
More details about UCCRN are available at this link: www.uccrn.org.