Climate Action Plan Workshop in Siliguri

 

As part of the CapaCITIES project supported by the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development, ICLEI South Asia will develop a Climate Change Action Plan for the city of Siliguri, with interventions aimed at building urban resilience and address both climate mitigation and climate adaptation.

 

The first Climate Action Plan Workshop for the same was conducted in Siliguri on 14th July, 2017. This workshop was a Shared Learning Dialogue (SLD) with the Stakeholder Group and Climate Core Team in Siliguri. It is the first among a series of consultative workshops where the Climate Core Team and Stakeholder Group will sit together to share thoughts and critical inputs, facilitated by ICLEI South Asia. This SLD was an introductory meeting and workshop, where the participants were introduced to the concept of climate action planning using the ICLEI ACCCRN Process (IAP) as well as GHG inventorisation (through Heat+ tool). The following topics were discussed in the SLD:

  • Identification of climate risks for the city and climate trends in the city
  • Identification of fragile urban systems
  • Conducting a risk assessment of fragile urban systems
  • Conducting a vulnerability assessment of fragile urban systemss
  • Identification of vulnerable places and people (actors)
  • Presentation of the GHG inventorization work carried out

The workshop was attended by the Climate Core Team members of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) and members of the Stakeholder Group. About 35 people participated in the workshop, including representatives from government departments and individual experts.

The workshop used the IAP tools for assessing the climate risks faced by Siliguri, the existing fragile urban systems, the anticipated risks to these systems and identified the risks and vulnerability of these systems. With the help of these tools, the team identified 5 systems as fragile in Siliguri – Water Supply, Sanitation and Sewerage, Storm Water Drainage, Solid Waste Management and Transportation. For each system, a climate fragility statement was outlined on the basis of the future climate risks that have been assessed for Siliguri, through secondary study. The risk assessment of these fragility statements was conducted through discussions during the SLD. The wards which are mainly affected by these fragile urban systems and their fragility and the primary actors who are impacted by them were also identified through discussions and group work.The GHG inventory developed for Siliguri was also presented along with detailed sector-wise emissions. The transport sector is the highest contributor to GHG emissions in Siliguri.

It was decided that in the next meeting the adaptive measures for each of the fragile urban systems will be identified, prioritised and assessed for their contribution to the resilience of Siliguri city using the IAP tool.

Similar mitigation measures will also be identified and prioritised and discussed in the next meeting.