Urban Climate Resilience Retreat – January 2023

Photo credit: Bhanu Sridharan

The varied impacts of a changing climate are now an inescapable reality for most of us. The factors exacerbating climate change are global in nature, but their impact on communities is very rooted in local realities. The resultant challenges have profound implications for our ecosystems, economies and social fabric. Extreme weather events also have a more pronounced impact on vulnerable populations and biodiversity. It therefore becomes imperative that we foreground resilience at individual and systemic levels. Holistic strategies that encompass adaptation and mitigation, technology and nature-based collective solutions, policy frameworks, and ethical processes are the need of the hour.

Cities are complex systems composed of interconnected infrastructure such as housing, water, power, healthcare, transport and each play parts in supporting a well functioning city. Moreover, this ties in with governance efforts towards important goals such as public health, waste management, biodiversity protection, food and water security, creation of socially inclusive and environmentally friendly community spaces, and protection of livelihoods.

This was BSF’s first in person retreat post the pandemic and it brought together a diverse group of people from various fields to discuss and explore climate resilience; from what it might mean and look like in real life for different sections of the society, to how it could be built in the spaces and communities in which the participants worked. The participants included climate researchers, social scientists, politicians, activists, journalists, citizens and practitioners working on democracy, sustainable food, and other related areas. We began with sharing what Climate Resilience meant to each participant and later went on to discuss 4 main aspects over the 2 days:

• Climate Realities and Local Capacities
• Infrastructures: Intent vs Impact and Politics of climate change
• Climate vocabulary and actionable climate science
• Adaptation strategies in climate action plans (CAP) and their implementation

Participants