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Building a climate conscious India

ByHimanshu Dixit, Rajkumar Balasubramanian, Kanagraj Ganesan, Karthik Ganesan, Manna Elizabeth Sam, Sonal Kumar
Jan 15, 2025 02:58 PM IST

This paper is authored by Himanshu Dixit, Rajkumar Balasubramanian, Kanagraj Ganesan, Karthik Ganesan, Manna Elizabeth Sam, Sonal Kumar.

The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges for human survival. Rising heatwaves, erratic monsoons, increased cyclonic activity are telltale signs of the impact of climate change, leading to loss of life, livelihoods, and economic activity. Countries around the world incur huge bills every year in the form of loss and damage due to climate-induced extreme weather events (EWE).

Climate crisis(Shutterstock) PREMIUM
Climate crisis(Shutterstock)

India is highly vulnerable to climate extremities, and it must elevate efforts to mitigate and build resilience against the effects of the climate crisis.

The main driver of the climate crisis is anthropogenic carbon emissions. Reducing CO2 emissions or decarbonisation within a certain time frame is an existentially important task, one that all nations must undertake together. As a ray of hope, the Paris Agreement offers a global framework of cooperation to systematically decarbonise and limit Earth’s warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100.

Whether it is devastating floods or unbearable heat, cities face some of the worst impacts of changing climate. Building resilience against these impacts is the most urgent task. However, cities are also responsible for about 70 per cent of global GHG emissions and more than half of these emissions, i.e. about 37 per cent, are linked with the built environment. Without question, sustainability and decarbonisation of built environment is a top priority. The good news is that there is wide acknowledgement and understanding of the problem. However, there is big scope to ramp-up action, which is in line with the knowledge of decarbonisation and the solutions available.

This report is an effort towards raising the collective consciousness of the building sector stakeholders and enhancing the adoption of low-carbon building solutions in their practises. Specifically, the report tries to respond to the question: which solutions are technically feasible for adoption today that can create a significant impact at scale on carbon emissions from the built environment? Through a data-driven approach, the report showcases solutions and exemplary case studies to illustrate that the work to bridge the gap between theory and action can start today. As the report reaches its intended audience, it will invigorate the conversation around decarbonising strategies and solutions, and inspire the stakeholders to act and implement.

This paper can be accessed here.

This paper is authored by Himanshu Dixit, Rajkumar Balasubramanian (Integrative Design Solutions), Kanagraj Ganesan (IDS), Karthik Ganesan, Manna Elizabeth Sam (IDS), Sonal Kumar (CEEW).

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