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Climate change risk: an adaptation and mitigation
agenda for Indian cities
Aromar Revi
Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) and the University of Delhi,
arevi@taru.org
This paper considers the needed adaptation and mitigation
agenda for cities in India — where the urban population is
likely to grow by around 500 million over the next 50 years.
It considers the likely changes that climate change will
bring in temperature, precipitation and extreme rainfall,
drought, river and inland flooding, storms/storm surges/
coastal flooding, sea-level rise and environmental health
risks, and who within urban populations are most at risk.
It notes the importance for urban areas of an effective
rural adaptation agenda — especially in maintaining the
productivity and functioning of rural systems. It highlights
the importance of today’s infrastructure investments,
taking into account climate changes, given the long
lifespan of most infrastructure, and the importance of
urban management engaging with changing risk profiles.
One important part of this is the need to connect official
adaptation initiatives to the much-improved natural hazard
risk assessment, management and mitigation capacity that
responded to major disasters. The paper ends by describing
a possible urban climate change adaptation framework,
including changes needed at the national, state, city and
neighbourhood levels, and linkages to mitigation.
Key Words: adaptation • climate change • mitigation • urban disasters
Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 20, No. 1,
207-229 (2008);DOI: 10.1177/0956247808089157
The RCE Initiative as a Policy Instrument for
Sustainable Development
Can it Match the World Heritage List and the Global
Compact?
Yoko Mochizuki
ESD Specialist, Education for Sustainable Development Programme,
at the United Nations University–Institute of Advanced Studies,
Japan. Email: mochizuki@ias.unu.edu
Concerns have been expressed about the United Nations
University’s (UNU) Regional Centres of Expertise on
education for sustainable development (RCE) initiative.
While many have discussed RCE’s contribution to the United
Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
(DESD), there has been no attempt to contextualise
the RCE initiative in relation to similar, high-profile UN
initiatives such as the Global Compact (GC) and UNESCO’s
World Heritage List, and to delineate the potential and
limitations of RCE as a scheme to encourage recognition
of ‘good practices’ and an institutional mechanism to
address sustainable development. With a view to refining
and advancing the RCE initiative conceptually and
operationally, this article addresses some of the key issues
that have been raised regarding the RCE programme. By
comparing it to the World Heritage List and GC, the article
clarifies the nature of designation of local networks as
RCEs and offers suggestions on how to ensure the quality
and validity of the RCE initiative in the long run.
Journal of Education for Sustainable Development,
Vol. 2, No. 1, 61-71 (2008);
DOI:10.1177/097340820800200111
Opinion Essay
What We Need to Learn to Save the Planet
Moacir Gadotti
Director, Paulo Freire Institute, Professor of Philosophy of
Education at the University of Sao Paulo, and author of many
books on education. Email: gadotti@paulofreire.org
The author argues that education, as we see it today, is
more a part of sustainable development’s (SD) problem
than a part of its solution because it reinforces the
principles and values of an unsustainable lifestyle and
economy. He argues for an economy that is not centred on
free market and profit, and which circulates wealth with
a logic of cooperation rather than competition. Solidarity
economy has incorporated the principles of inclusion and
social emancipation. Sustainability and solidarity are
emergent and convergent themes. Gadotti proposes that
without social mobilisation against the current economic
model, education for sustainable development (ESD) will
not reach its goals. In addition, education for a sustainable
life—not only for a sustainable development—is required.
The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development is
an opportunity for formal education to construct a new
quality of education, a social-environmental quality, to
replace the current education model that has been eroding
the planet since the nineteenth century.
Journal of Education for Sustainable Development,
Vol. 2, No. 1, 21-30 (2008)
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