10 Indian cities namely, Leh, Dharamsala, Mandi, Dehradun, Nainital, Panaji, Nashik, Kurseong, Shillong and Gangtok and 3 cities of Bangladesh – Singra, Mongla and Barisal, are currently a part of the Rockefeller Foundation funded Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN), working towards improving their climate resilience and protecting themselves from projected impacts of climate change.

Following are highlights of the cities’ status in the project:

• Dehradun, Leh, Kurseong and Gangtok – Completed first phase where an introductory workshop has been conducted and phase two will be taking place soon.
• Nainital, Singra and Mongla – Completed second phase where the Climate exposure, Urban system analysis and Risk analysis have been conducted and third phase is being planned.
• Dharamsala, Barisal and Shillong – Completed third phase in which vulnerability assessment has been completed and final phases in respective cities are being planned.
• Mandi – In the fourth phase in which resilient interventions were identified. Resilience Strategy is being developed and the climate resilient strategy document will be produced soon.
• Panaji and Barisal – Urban Vulnerability Assessment (UVA) has been completed and a SLD with a different approach is being planned.
• Nashik – Risk assessment and vulnerability assessment have been completed and interventions identified and Climate resilience strategy has been prepared.

ICLEI South Asia, on the basis of the learnings, approaches and best practices developed across these pilot cities and the best practices from other approaches that build urban climate resilience, has developed a tool kit which can be used by local governments to develop their own climate resilience strategy and protect themselves against impacts of climate change. This toolkit has already been tested in 3 cities of Bhubaneswar, Mysore and Shimla. Click here to know more. 

The ultimate vision of this program is to build resilience to climate change across all urban systems and groups, in particular the poorest and most marginalized. The specific objectives are: 

• Developing climate resilience strategy for urban local authorities. 
• Assist cities to prepare for climate action to plan a climate resilience strategy and become “investable”.
• Finding ways for the ACCCRN approach and learnings to be incorporated into other programs, policies, events, trainings etc. in the Asian region through networking and partnerships.

Find more information on ACCCRN’s South Asian activities here.