Climate Change - Question of Cities

How the lack of rights worsens climate events for Delhi’s informal workers

As climate-related weather events scorch, flood and chill New Delhi, its informal workers, an estimated 80 percent of its workforce, are left grappling with myriad challenges of living in a city that would not function if not for their labour.…

Pakistan’s women struggle to make voices heard in Climate Change conversations

The impact of climate-induced catastrophes doubles in Pakistani women as they are left out of the decision-making policies. Heat waves and floods have battered the country with greater intensity each passing year. Women living in informal settlements in Karachi, one…

The green does not have to lose the battle to the grey in our cities

Large swathes of green cover are being cleared to make way for construction and infrastructure across cities in India. Trees are being cut, large canopies felled, old trees badly and unscientifically pruned. Urban plans and projects do not take trees…

‘Cities are valued as places of commerce and not well-being, so trees are seen as dispensable’

In an age when cities are building more malls, parking lots, offices, schools and colleges, there seems to be hardly any room for trees. We have stopped valuing the natural resources and the ecosystem they support; as cities turn grey…

Libya floods: Derna drowning was a man-made disaster decades in the making

Two dams collapsed upstream towards the Jebel Akhdar (the Green Mountain) in Libya, overwhelmed by the rain surge from Storm Daniel. A seven-metre wave thundered down Wadi Derna through the city, washing whole suburbs into the sea. The Turkish Red…

Women move the narrative from victims to agents of change

At a time when extreme weather events are causing damage and destruction around the world, women are silently turning climate crusaders in their communities and leading mitigation or adaptation measures. Women are affected disproportionately more and in different ways than…

How is India mainstreaming gender in Climate Change adaptation?

Women are often portrayed as victims of Climate Change, or as ‘most vulnerable’ while failing to recognise other realities. Women’s contribution to household-adaptive capacities and intra-household decision-making, often cooperative than combative, is lost. This oversight erases the substantive evidence on…

Pune’s women waste pickers show path to climate action

Women waste pickers have been playing a crucial role towards making Pune zero-waste. Their efforts mean nearly 80,000 tonnes of waste recycled annually which saves the municipal corporation at least Rs 100 crore besides reducing the burden on landfills --…

Climate-induced inflation wrecks women’s food practices in Shaheen Bagh

Shaheen Bagh, a middle-class and predominantly Muslim area in south east Delhi, emerged as the city’s culinary hub after the persistent protest against the draconian Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens in 2019-2020. Though the chaalis futa road…

Greater Dhaka: Making liveable city in times of Climate Change is all politics and planning

Dhaka has been experiencing longer summers with heatwaves, weaker monsoons and shorter winters, indicating the Climate Change impact. Studies show that the situation is likely to worsen in the years to come, both of heat and rainfall. Thousands of underprivileged…