The 10-part E-learning series is being launched in partnership with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) along with various alliance partners as well as city Authorities. It aims to build a common understanding of cities about climate change and their role in mainstreaming climate actions through policies and regulations, planning and implementation of programs and projects. This initiative will enable peer city interactions, interactions with subject matter experts and will provide a platform to explore long term collaborations with city authorities across India for building climate actions in cities.

Watch the Launch event here:

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Session 10: Active Mobility Systems – Pandemic and Beyond

This session will focus on key factors that led to shift in mode choice for people in cities and the measures the cities undertook to redefine these mobility systems, with NMT as the key focuses. The session will also address the need for dialogue between different stakeholders i.e., the Government, expert organizations, and users on the ground, to achieve a holistic solution.

SPEAKERS

• Aswathy Dilip, Senior Programme Manager, Institute of Transport and Development Policy
• Sonal Kulkarni, Senior Transport Planner, Directorate of Urban Land Transport
• Rajeev Malagi, Manager, Sustainable Cities and Transport, WRI India
• Sonal Shah, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable and Equitable Cities
• Prerna Mehta, Associate Director, Urban Development, WRI India (Moderator)

Watch the full session here

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Session 9: Local Climate Action – Plan, Prioritization and Market Outlook

The focus of the session is to introduce the way forward for mitigation GHG emissions in cities. The three steps of conducting an assessment, developing an action plan, and implementing measures for reducing GHG emissions will be elaborated by the speakers. Demonstration of a self-assessment tool, ground experiences of developing the climate action plan in cities and ways to leverage carbon credits will be discussed in detail.

SPEAKERS

• Dr. Rajan Chedambath, Director, Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development, Kochi
• Vibhor Sood, Technical Expert (Climate & Infrastructure), GIZ - ClimateSmart Cities Project, India
• Avni Agarwal, Senior Project Associate, Climate Program, WRI India
• Kundan Burnwal, Advisor, Climate Change, GIZ India
• Jai Kumar Gaurav, Senior Advisor, Climate Change and Circular Economy, GIZ India
• Amanjot Kaur, Research Assistant, C-Cube, NIUA (Moderator)

Watch the full session here

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Session 8: EV Charging Infrastructure Deployment in Cities

The session will focus on a key aspect of the electric mobility ecosystem - charging infrastructure - the on-ground deployment of which local authorities are responsible for. The session will present a framework for EV charging infrastructure implementation, energy mapping to assess EV charging infrastructure needs, technical features of tenders for public charging and a case study on Hyderabad’s pathway for deployment of EV charging.

SPEAKERS

• DV Ramakrishna, Project Director, TSREDCO, Government of Telangana
• Sushovan Bej, Technical Expert, E-Mobility, GIZ
• Rohan Rao, Manager, Sustainable Cities and Transport, WRI India
• Chaitanya Kanuri, Manager, Sustainable Cities and Transport, WRI India (Moderator)

Watch the full session here

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Session 7: Inclusive Climate Action Planning

The objective of the session is to provide an introduction on how cities can mainstream climate action in planning processes and present a methodology to develop a climate action plan. The session also includes experiences shared by a city government representative in building city/stakeholder interest for developing the city climate action plan and the challenges involved in the process.

SPEAKERS

• Nikhil Kolsepatil, Senior Manager, Energy & Climate, ICLEI South Asia
• Chirag Gajjar, Head, Subnational Climate Action, WRI India
• Ankita Mandal, Senior Associate, Climate Centre for Cities, NIUA (Moderator)

Watch the full session here

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Session 6: Urban Freshwater Ecosystems - Resilience tools in a climate uncertain future

The session will present data and analytics on the changes to urban water ecosystems due to expanding city footprints and highlight the potential of nature-based solutions and blue-green infrastructure to serve as assets for climate proofing cities to water risks and stresses. Session shall also explain cases on restoring the city’s wetlands and lakes and their benefits to the city to demonstrate an alternate path in city development, where water resources are protected and restored not just for aesthetic purposes, but to serve as critical climate adaptation and mitigation solutions.

SPEAKERS

• Alpana Jain, Program Lead, Cities Program, The Nature Conservancy, India
• Nisha Priya Mani, Project Manager, Cities Program, The Nature Conservancy, India
• Radhakrishnan, Assistant Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, Tamil Nadu
• Sahana Goswami, Manager, Cities Program, WRI India (Moderator)

Watch the full session here

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Session 5: Innovation in Climate Change

The session will introduce the concept of innovation in the sphere of climate change and how cities can leverage this for addressing urbanization and climate related challenges. We will interact with different stakeholders of the ecosystem to understand products and process points of view, challenges in the development process and innovation uptake in the cities.

SPEAKERS

• Karthik Chandrasekar, CEO, Sangam Ventures
• Azhagu Pandia Raja, City Innovation Officer, Greater Chennai Corporation
• Wilma Rodrigues, Founder and CEO, Saahas Zero Waste
• Punit Gandhi, Senior Associate, Climate Centre for Cities, NIUA (Moderator)

Watch the full session here

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Session 4: Green Buildings for Resilient Cities

This session will introduce the audience to concept of green buildings, their significance in climate resilience and mitigation, their benefits and components and the role of national and local governments in promoting green buildings through policies and programs. The session will also showcase various building efficiency and clean energy initiatives undertaken in different cities and their experiences on the process of implementation, challenges faced, and learnings.

SPEAKERS

• Dhilon Subramanian, Senior Project Associate, Energy Program, WRI India
• Saswati Chetia, Associate Director, Greentech Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
• Prerna Mehta, Associate Director, Urban Development, WRI India (Moderator)

Watch the full session here

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Session 3: Nature-based Solutions

The session will introduce various Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that have been adopted by cities to address climate related challenges. The effective implementation of NbS that involves inter-departmental coordination along with other stakeholder participation will be discussed. Tools available to compare the costs and benefits for making informed decisions on where NbS is appropriate will also be highlighted.

Speakers

• Vidya Soundarajan, Director, Ecological Footprint, WWF India
• Dr. Faiyaz A Khudsar, Biodiversity Parks Program, Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems, University of Delhi
• Raina Singh, Lead-Policy and Partnerships, Climate Centre for Cities, NIUA (Moderator)

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Session 2: Air Pollution

This session will discuss the causes and impacts of air pollution and explain various tools to measure air pollution and air quality in India. It will also provide sector-wise actionable items to tackle air pollution and inform on co-benefits of air pollution mitigation and adaptation strategies. The session will showcase a case study explaining the experience of Source Apportionment Study in Surat and other cities and will also update on new initiatives undertaken by GPCB, Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), Handbook of Clean Construction Practices, etc.

SPEAKERS

• Ajay S Nagpure, Head, Air Quality and Sustainable Cities, WRI India
• R Suresh, Area Convener, Centre for Environmental Studies, TERI
• Parag U Dave, Senior Environment Engineer and Regional Officer, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Surat
• Prerna Mehta, Associate Director, Urban Development, WRI India (Moderator)

Watch the full session here

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Session 1: Urban Resilience

The session on ‘Urban Resilience’ will focus on actions for mainstreaming resilience in short-term, mid-term and long-term planning. Leveraging ongoing initiatives for achieving resilience co-benefits and active engagement with stakeholders for building awareness and resilience actions will also be discussed.

SPEAKING

• Sourabh Gaidhani, Lead, Programs, Resilient Cities Network
• Nupur Prothi Khanna, Founder, Beyond Built
• Mahesh Harhare, Chief Resilience Officer (CRO), Pune
• Vaishnavi Shankar, Lead, Training & Capacity Building Climate Centre for Cities, NIUA (Moderators)

Watch the full session here:

For more queries reach out to Prerna Mehta; Pmehta@wri.org