Karachi and other coastal cities bearing the brunt of climate change

While all coastal cities face challenges from climate change, those with a population of over 10 million could be substantially affected.
These cities include Karachi, Kolkata and Mumbai in India, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Jakarta in Indonesia, Manila in Philippines, Shanghai in China, and Osaka-Kobe and Tokyo in Japan.
The cities in the US include Los Angeles and New York. Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina, London in the UK, Lagos in Nigeria, and Cairo in Egypt are the other cities in the category.
According to Urban World, a series published by the UN-Habitat on urban life and climate change, around 200 million people could be displaced by 2050 because of developments induced by climate change, such as rise in sea levels, cyclones and extreme weather conditions.
With its cover story, ‘Bringing blue skies back to our cities’, on China’s tackling of climate change, the latest edition of Urban World focuses on initiatives across the globe to tackle climate change, the most pressing issue facing urban planners, governments and the urban populations.
Pioneering solar projects in Thane (Maharashtra, India) and the need for local governments to drive action on global warming are dwelt upon in the issue.
Cities are the biggest polluters and it is crucial to understand the role of an urban entity in greenhouse gas emissions, the report says.
“As arguably our planet’s biggest polluters, cities, the heart of human innovation and knowledge, are surely able to reduce or mitigate emissions, adapt to climate change and enhance sustainability and resilience.”
MAJOR TRIGGER: Elaborating further on the role of cities, Urban World says that economic activities in a city and transport, heating, and cooling systems are direct causes of climate change. Besides, effluence has been a major trigger for greenhouse gas emissions.
The developing countries generated only about 25 percent of the per capita emissions of the developed world and a select number of developed countries and major emerging economy nations were the main polluters.
Quoting figures from the UN-Habitat Global Report on Human Settlement 2011, Urban World says that by 2080, rising sea levels will have affected five times more coastal residents than in 1990.
Cities in Africa, China, India and Thailand are particularly vulnerable among the flood-exposed cities globally, says the report as it points out that even a rise in temperature by a degree or two can lead to six to 25 million people in the North African coast being exposed to flooding.
The report says that almost all among the top 10 cities exposed to flooding risk would be located in countries such as China, India and Thailand by 2070.