Background

Regions across the Global South are experiencing increasing climate vulnerabilities, with its cities and particularly informal settlements often facing disproportionate impacts due to inadequate infrastructure, insecure tenure, limited access to basic services and dependence on climate sensitive livelihoods. Climate impacts also disrupt the livelihoods of informal workers, including street vendors and waste pickers, whose work is often excluded from city climate plans, heat action measures and disaster response systems. While cities and local governments are increasingly developing climate and resilience plans, they often have huge gaps with respect to centring informality and resilience building. A second key challenge remains decentralising the plans to sub-city levels and translating strategies into action and implementation.

This session will explore how local governments and communities can deepen city-level climate planning and strengthen the link between planning and locally grounded action, particularly on adaptation and loss and damage. YUVA will highlight experiences of inclusive city-level planning, and implementing the Community Climate Action Planning model, to demonstrate connecting informality, community identified climate priorities and municipal planning and implementation. Contributions from Observer Research Foundation, IIED, UNU-EHS will extend the discussion to climate related loss and damage and urban environmental justice, informal sector workers’ livelihoods, locally led adaptation and the critical need for localised financing and accountability mechanisms.

Agenda

About the organiser

Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) is a non-profit based in India that helps vulnerable groups access their rights. Find us here: yuvaindia.org

Contact: dulari.p@yuvaindia.org | +91 9324045801