Purpose & Aim of the ClimateSmart Cities Alliance

It can be easily appreciated that combating Climate Change is neither simple, nor can it be the responsibility or ability of one organization. More so, when one is talking at National level and all cities across a country as diverse as India. CSCAF assessment is planned annually in order to enable cities tocontinuously evaluate, plan and implement climate sensitive development practices by providing access to knowledge, guidance, peer-to-peer learning, reference case studies and toolkits.

Understanding that Climate Change impacts are cross-cutting and complex, and steps towards their improvement need to be broad-based with long-term planning, this alliance aims to broad- base a city’s efforts towards climate awareness, planning & action, and ensure its overall sustainability for posterity. Improvements in the assessment would be a by-product of such an endeavour. In this direction, the Missionenvisages creation of a ‘ClimateSmart Cities Alliance’ to foster collaborative effort at all levels of Government and among all stakeholders for successful climate action.

Objectives

1. To orient the CSCAF and other actions on combating urban climate change, into an inclusive broad-baseddialogue and promote collaborative action
2. To deliberate on actions and policies required at city, state and national level for undertaking relevant mitigation and adaptation actions by cities for improving their performance in CSCAF.
3. To provision for capacity building resources for cities via trainings, webinars, exposure visits, etc.
4. City to city exchange for mentoring and fostering change and to inspire cities to act on their own through simple, plausible and local solutions for tackling climate change issues
5. To facilitate funding for projects, if resources are not available locally.  

Possible Roles and Responsibilities

1. To proactively participate in the CSCAF exercise, mutual learning exercises, and other related activities.
2. To prioritize and take relevant actions and their implementation in order to improve the cities performance as per the CSCAF indicators.
3. To document and share experiences, both good and bad, that will help cross learning and faster implementation in and across cities.
4. To help with mentoring of other cities within the state/ region, by actively sharing of experience and supporting city to city exchange by showcasing the city’s work, volunteering as trainers, etc.
5. To nominate a Climate Officer and a Climate team under him, responsible for all climate actions in the city.
6. To initiate the formation of a Climate Governance mechanism like a Climate Cell/ Department within the city and include relevant officers/ stakeholders from other departments, as applicable.
7. To contribute to the conversation on combating urban climate change, as a conscientious partner in India’s progress on NDCs and Climate goals.
8. To take up any specific responsibilities or tasks as emerge in the overall CSCAF effort and as relevant to the city’s progress.

Note

The above roles and contribution are voluntary. TheCities are also further advised to form “Local Climate Alliance” for their cities, which will bring together the diverse local skills, strengths and resources required for planned Climate action, and organizations are encouraged to ask their local offices and representatives to be part of the same.